Through Prayer
6. God speaks to me through prayer
Psalm 54:2
Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.
Many new Christians say they don’t pray because they don’t know how. Many praying Christians quit praying because they don’t believe God answers their prayers or because it seems as though their prayers go up as far as the ceiling and then stop. They feel as though they can’t communicate with God. ‘Something’ is hindering their prayers.
God hears our prayers. As I was reading through Psalms and Proverbs searching out verses for this post, it was overwhelming to go through all of the times prayer is mentioned (that’s only two books out of 66!). I am only going to post a few examples, but if you get a chance, try going to this website
and take the time to read through all of the things God has to say about prayer. It may take you a couple of sittings.
Reading through the old testament, it is easy to find examples of God’s people coming to Him in prayer. Isaac prayed because Rebekah was childless, Genesis 25:21; Moses prayed for all kinds of things, Exodus; Hannah prayed for her childless state and then to dedicate Samuel to God’s service, 1 Samuel 2; David prayed A LOT, 2 Samuel, Psalms; David’s son Solomon prayed, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Daniel prayed, various kings prayed, the prophets prayed, and oh, how Job prayed!
The greatest example of prayer in Scripture is how faithful the Lord Jesus was in prayer.
Mark 1:35
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Luke 5:16
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
In Matthew 6, Jesus gives us the format in which we pray. This is often referred to as the Lord’s prayer.
Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever.
Amen.
Jesus set all things before His Father. He offered up His obedience and faithfulness along with praise. Jesus didn’t just come to God looking for stuff and when He did come before God in prayer, He knew His prayers were heard because He was praying in God’s will.
God always hears our prayers. What happens next is really up to us.
Proverbs 28:9
If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.
Coming to God with a gimmie attitude is not going to work. If we expect Him to give us all that we want but are not even willing to let Him be Lord of our lives, we are going to be sorely disappointed.
Job 16:17
yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Having a heart that is right with God will allow you to better see how He is working in your life through prayer. “Hit the ceiling” prayers are often an indication that we are not right with God. Either there is some sort of sin in our lives that we are not dealing with or we are going astray and God is waiting for us to come back.
Psalm 17:6
I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.
Have you ever tried keeping a prayer journal? Periodically, I write down a list of the things/people I’ve been praying about. Every so often, I go through the journal and make notes of the many areas where God has answered those prayers. Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes it is no and sometimes it is wait. God isn’t accountable to my timing.
Ephesians 6:18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
God commands us to come before Him in prayer. It is a critical part of the relationship He wants to have with us. God is faithful and will hear us and answer us. Even when we don’t know what to pray, God has given us the Holy Spirit to bring before Him what we cannot
Romans 8:26
| In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. |
Psalm 66:20
Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!
Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Psalm 143:1
Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
God is faithful! He does hear us and wants to speak to us. In coming before Him in prayer, we open the way for Him to answer our prayers through all of the ways we’ve talked about this week. God’s Word, the Holy Spirit, our common sense or conscience, the counsel of the saints and the circumstantial signs around us are all answers to prayer.
So, there are the six ways I see that God speaks to us. I hope that these last few blogs have been a blessing to you. I know that they’ve been very good for me. I find it helpful to go over and reinforce why I believe what I believe. Thanks for reading.
Philippians 1:9-11
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
