Does God hear our prayers? When do we pray? What do our prayers sound like? Do we expect God to answer or do we just hope He does? What do we do when we hear in our minds "What difference does it make, what will be will be!"
Hopefully we will address these, and more in this short study. But first I want to give you just a few bible verses where people prayed:
David: Psalm 141:1-2 LORD, I cry to You; Make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry to You. Let my prayer be set before you as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
(More from David Psalm 142:1-7, Psalm 143:1-12 and many more)
Revelation 8:4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints (All born again believer), ascended before God from the angel's hand.
In Exodus 30 when God gave Moses instructions on building the tabernacle, there was an altar of incense, both morning and night the priest would burn this particular incense with a particular fire, as he would offer prayers up to God for the children of Israel, in this way the incense was to burn continually. This symbolized by the sweet smelling smoke ascending into heaven as our prayers. Today we don't need to burn incense because Jesus Christ is our bridge to our Father's throne. But prayer is to come up to God continually
1Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing
How in the world can anyone pray continually, without ceasing? Well we must be open to the drawing of the Holy Spirit, to enter into prayer. Whether during the day when we suddenly start thinking about someone, or to suddenly wake up at night feeling an urgency to pray. Another thing is we keep praying for someone, or about something in particular, until God answers or God releases us.
Luke 18:1 Then He (Jesus) spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.
See that "lose heart" it is mentioned again in Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
"Lose Heart"means to become discouraged, to just give up because we do not see a change. God always hears our prayers and His answer is coming, sometimes while waiting we become discouraged and stop praying. Sometimes God's answer has been sent but there is a battle happening in the spirit realm to stop our answer. Recalling what happened to Daniel, in the Book of Daniel he had been praying and fasting for three whole weeks, then an angel reached him:
Daniel 10:12 Then he said to me, "Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.
It goes on to say that a demonic force in the spirit realm had delayed God's answer. There is the natural realm we see with our eyes and there is a spirit realm that our natural eyes cannot see. Us in our normal prayer life, why would satan and his demons want to stop God's answer to our prayers? So we will become discouraged (lose heart) and stop praying, especially when we are praying for the lost, or the wayward, or healing. Ever been praying for a lost family member for years and then hear something like this in your mind, "He/she are never going to change, they are a hopeless cause" and then you find yourself stopping your prayers for them. That is exactly what the enemy wants us to do, just silence our prayers. Yet, God's word tells us to persevere in prayer. To pray expecting, believing, trusting, Amen.
Psalm 116:1-2 I LOVE the LORD, because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
Oh my my my, those verses so touch my heart. "Inclined" means He leans down toward us. Do you get it, do you hear what is being said? God the Giver of Life, our Creator loves us so much He leans down to listen to us.
I have heard some say, "God doesn't care about the little things I just pray about the important things"! Let me ask you do you care about the little things in your children's lives? Our Heavenly Father cares about everything in our lives, why He sent Jesus to die for every part of us, He gave us His Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us, to help us in our prayers. We should be not just praying for others, but praying for ourselves. What do I mean you ask? I pray: " Father draw me deeper into You, examine my heart, reveal my sins, forgive me for the words I spoke in anger, the neglect I have given You, teach me Your ways, purify all that is in me that is of You and consume with Your fire all that is not of You." Just a little example. People we have both a gift and a privilege to pray, anytime, day or night, we must not neglect such a privilege that many do not have. God invites us, He beckons us to come into His Throne Room, into His chamber for a time of intimacy. There are times I just want to sit in His presence and not say a word, to be like Mary and sit at the Master's feet, to wash His feet with tears and the oil in my alabaster box.
Have you been there, in that moment when everything is removed from your thinking, distractions are removed. You won't find that praying on your way to work or sitting in a parking lot at work, though it is ok to do that, as long as you don't close your eyes while driving. In those intimate times we stay until Jesus releases us. Quality time is better than quantity time. Because of where I am in this season, for me my times are shorter and more often, than perhaps some of you.
I think I may stop here, so much more to talk about so I think I will do a part two.
May God bless you and keep you, may His light shine upon you.
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