I must admit – I needed the quiet of this past Sunday afternoon. The calm in the room did my body and soul good since my emotions were warring against me.
I spent time reflecting and in time, ended up reading in 1 John 5 and became glued to one verse – a most familiar one at that:
“And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.” (verse 14, NLT)
Those words stopped me right there as the meaning fell deeply. Today my prayer for all of you is truly this – BASK in the truth, the reality – that when we pray, the God of the universe hears us.
The words we utter to Him – in desperation, deliberately, or casually – He hears each one. Not a single word offered up in prayer falls on deaf ears.
While the Scripture may not mean that He responds in exactly the manner we desire, it does mean that He hears us and He responds. Sometimes His response is a “yes”, sometimes a “no”, and sometimes a “wait” or even a “later”. But He hears us. Even the prayer which is nothing more than our tears, He hears each one as they fall.
We tend to think the responses we receive are indicative of the “success” of our prayers. May we not fall into this trap of the enemy.
As I read yesterday, all these thoughts were brought on by this one quote by Andrew Murray:
“Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do.”
We are limited in our understanding of prayer, and of God’s ability, because our minds are finite. Well, at least mine is 
. But today, let’s remember when God answers our prayers, His answers may look different than our expectations. This does not mean He has not answered in the best possible way. It does mean He sees the full picture, the beginning from the end. He is a good God who does all things well.
May we keep praying and trusting Him with, and for, the answer!
Today I am joining … Testimony Tuesday and #RaRaLinkup and Unite .
Amen, Joanne! He is right there with us. I love it that He is always listening to the petitions of the righteous. That verse is one of my favorite promises. Glad to be landing on your page today for #TestimonyTuesday!
It is so easy to fall into the lie of thinking our prayers fall on deaf ears. Even when He is “quieter”, He is still at work and will reveal the answer in the right time. Grateful you stopped here this week!
Yes, Joanne, I am so quick to construe the wrong response when God does not answer prayer as I have expected.
“Oh, I guess He didn’t hear me.”
“Oh, I guess He doesn’t care about me.”
Thank you for this exhortation to put my confidence in the God who hears and to then trust His motives and His sovereign will.
Michele, it is true. Our vivid and creative minds can come up with plenty of responses or reasons for a lack of response from the Lord. May we be patient to trust Him for His response in His time.
Thanks for these words of encouragement, Joanne. I had to stop reading in the middle to pray for someone. <3
Grateful and humbled that you were moved to pray. And that is so it, may we be quick to respond when we are prompted to pray. Thank you for sharing this most important reminder!
So true, it was very well saying, some times it’s hard to wait for the answer but He is always on time never to early and never to late .
Norma, for us impatient ones, it is very difficult to wait. Yet in waiting, He brings the perfect answer and solution to every prayer. May we wait and see, dear friend! xo