Is God Listening?

Do you have confidence that when you pray God is listening? Do you wonder why your prayer wasn't answered? Perhaps it was answered, just not the way you expected.
Matt. 7:8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Jesus doesn't say "some who ask receive, but He says EVERYONE receives. Jesus wants to hear our prayers. He wants us to have that conversation with Him. We are created by our Father in heaven. We are His children, children of the living God, children of the King of Kings, heirs to His throne, princes and princesses in the Kingdom of God. Think about that for a moment. We are royalty. We are heirs to the throne. We have a direct phone line to God through Jesus Christ. If Jesus loves us this much, why then would He not answer our prayers?
Truth is He always answers, it just may not be in a way we expected or "wanted". 
God knows what is on our hearts, even before we speak it. He knows what we need before we realize we need it. And He knows the perfect answer to those prayers, those needs. He knows the perfect way to answer so that the glory goes to God. 
God deserves all the glory and more. He sacrificed His own Son, Jesus Christ, for our sins. So that we can be redeemed and forgiven, and live freely to worship Him and live for Him. If He sacrificed all for us then why do we so often think He won't answer our prayers?
There is no prayer too large or too small for God. There is no prayer that is insignificant to God. Every prayer that is on our hearts, every concern we have, they all matter to God. 
I encourage you faithful readers, have that faith the size of a mustard seed, believe what you read in the Word of God, trust in the Lord that He wants to answer your prayers. He loves us more than we can even comprehend. He wants His very best for us.

Proverbs 3:5-6English Standard Version (ESV)

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.

Prayer and More

The last few blogs I’ve been talking about prayer. It has been so strong in my heart lately. Today being no different. Last blog I was talking about praying for ourselves. And today that is still so very important to me. So this blog will be a little like that but with a different direction.
As I have been studying about prayer the Lord is showing me so many different aspects, but not new aspects. What do I mean by that?
We have all been taught about prayer, about how to pray, and what words to use and so on.  This morning my heart was very concerned for a friend. She truly needs a miracle from the Lord. I have often fashioned my prayer time to be mostly interceding for someone else.  As I began praying for my friend clearly I felt a tug on my heart. God was redirecting me towards Him.
Those early lessons on prayer came flooding back into my mind. I remember the JOY method of prayer. Jesus, others, you. I knew I needed to redirect my prayer time. I had to praise our Lord Jesus first and foremost for what he has done in my life, in my family’s life.  He is the most important one we should be including in our prayer time. We need to thank Him, praise Him, and worship Him everyday. Then all else will fall into place.
I know for me when I get the focus off of me, off of the troubles of the week, and give Jesus the praise and adoration He deserves, then He guides me through my prayer time.
When I got done with that part of my prayer time, then praying and interceding for my friend who needs that miracle became much more fluent. I felt that every word I uttered, every groan, every tear meant so much more.  I knew my heart had been cleansed by the Holy Spirit and prepared for intercession.
This prayer time reminded me of this vital lesson. We must take care of our hearts, clean the cobwebs out as my husband would say. It is then that we are in the place to move on and do battle in prayer.
I encourage you prayer warriors out there, no matter how important or not, no matter how big or not, whatever you have on your heart, it is very important to God. So shake out the cobwebs and get those prayer shoes on. Jesus is there waiting for you to have a conversation with Him.  Your heart will be filled with His love.

Praying for “me”

When we often read about prayer it is talking about praying for others and interceding for others. When we think of prayer we automatically think of the prayer needs of those around us. But how often do we pray for our own needs?  I know for myself I take comfort in knowing others are interceding for me.  I must remind myself it is important to pray for “me” also.
Honestly, I think most of us feel guilty about praying for our own needs before praying for others. But think about it, why should we feel guilty? Would Jesus not want us to pray for our own needs?
Jesus was the ultimate example of praying for Himself.  We often read in the Bible of Jesus praying to Father God for wisdom, strength, direction, and for His needs.
This shows us that we have a responsibility to ourselves to pray for our own needs.  We don’t need to feel guilty. Jesus showed us many times that it is ok to pray for ourselves. He wants us to cast our cares on Him. He wants us to come to Him and lay that burden at His feet. Jesus wants to take care of our every need, our every concern.  Why?  Because He loves us!
Jesus wants us to be able to come to Him in humility, and trusting in Him completely for our own needs.
Sure, it is so very important to pray and intercede for others and the situations around us. But Jesus doesn’t want us to forget about “us”. I have learned through my trials over the years to rest in the knowledge others are praying for me, but I also have learned to pray for myself as well, and trusting in the promises of our Lord Jesus.
I would like to encourage you my friends, when you start your day in prayer, or praying in the middle of the day, or praying at bedtime, include yourself in those prayers.  You aren’t being selfish, you are just going to your loving Father and laying those burdens down at His feet.

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:3, 6-7‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

Prayer

Prayer! Well now that can open up a whole barrel of thoughts. Just that very word can bring a whole host of emotions in us. It can bring us joy, laughter, sadness, and even weeping. However, prayer is our direct access to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The God of the universe, our Creator hears our every prayer, He hears my voice, He hears your voice. How awesome is that?! WOW, my God in heaven hears my voice. Oh my goodness, that brings chills to my body, it brings tears to my eyes, it fills my heart with gladness.
So then why do we not pray? What gets in our way? What are we afraid of? 
I'd say many times we do not feel worthy to pray. We may think sin has stained us, or we feel we are currently in sin. We may feel we are not important enough to God because we are not as successful as others. Let me tell you, we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for you, for me, that gives us the privilege to pray. By the power of the blood of Jesus we are worthy. Our sin is forgiven when we ask Jesus to forgive us. We are the very creation of God. He loves us more than anything. He doesn't care how important we are in man's eyes, or how much our income is, or how successful we are. He cares about you and me, and our eternity with Him.
We do not have to ask permission to pray. We have that direct link, His direct phone number to call Him whenever we want. There is nothing to fear. We do not have to be a scholar and pray with all the correct wording, we do not have to be an elder to pray, we don't have to be a pastor to pray. We all have the permission and authority and privilege to pray. 
When we pray with that confidence, with that enthusiasm, knowing that God is on the other end of the phone, then I believe our prayers will be so powerful that we will see with our very eyes mountains move, miracles like we've never seen before.  We will have victory!
Philippians 4:6-7  Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
When I thought about these verses and what God was stirring in my heart, I thought of this-" We have a peace officer around our hearts". 
A peace officer in the natural is responsible for keeping peace. We are so privileged to have the Holy Spirit in us 24/7. Our Lord Jesus told us we would have a helper, a comforter, a counselor with us always, the Holy Spirit. When we pray, and cast our cares to Jesus, let Him know our concerns, our fears, our needs, then the Holy Spirit will remind us, in our hearts, that He is right there and has everything in control. He is our peace officer.
There are so many more thoughts I have on this, but I want to keep this in blog form and not "book form". 
I will leave you with this. When we pray, that enables us to trust in Him and rest in Him.