Prayer: Does God Hear Me?

Introduction: We are going to approach a topic tonight that is not going to be anything new. I am not going to say anything tonight that will wow you! You aren’t going to leave here thinking: “I never knew that!” Instead, my goal is to encourage you in a time of your life that you may be discouraged.

You might be thinking: how does he know I’m discouraged right now? Well, in a group this size it is not a difficult guess to say that some of you are struggling and discouraged. In fact, I know of some who are in this type of season. We all go through those seasons, and we may even be tempted in those seasons to wonder: is God really listening to my prayers? Maybe you are going through something right now and you have been praying, and praying, and praying, and maybe it even feels to you like you are shouting next to a waterfall and you cannot be heard.

Does God really hear us when we cry out to Him? Well, we know God can hear. So sometimes we even begin to wonder if our faith is strong enough, or if we are good enough, or we pray often enough, and these thoughts can wear us own and leave us feeling doubtful and discouraged.

As always, when we are struggling we must turn to God’s Word and see what He has to say.

Are You Praying At All?

James 4:1–2 NKJV

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

:1-2

Are You Praying With the Wrong Motives?

James 4:

James 4:3 NKJV

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Be Persistent in Prayer

Luke 18:1–7 NKJV

Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ” Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?

Pray in Faith

Matthew 21:21–22 NKJV

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

James 1:6–8 NKJV

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Transition: What do we do when passages like this leave us struggling? Will God only answer our prayers if we endure day and night? Will God only work if we have mountain-moving faith? Will my doubting and double-mindedness make my prayers void?

The freedom we need is the freedom of realizing that we and our prayers really aren’t good enough, and like the rest of our sin we must confess that and leave it with Christ at the cross.

Lord, Help Us to Pray

We must be persistent and we must have faith, but we must also realize that there is nothing in our relationship with God that we are good enough. It is that realization that elevates the mercy of God in our hearts. Everywhere we turn there is mercy from God. We strive to be persistent and fail; we apply God’s promises so that we can have faith and we often fail. Yet, poor as we are, we are invited to cry to the Lord.

Psalm 34:6 NKJV

This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.

In order to be persistent and have faith we need God’s help. We are never invited to place our hope in our faith and persistence, but to place our faith and hope in the person of Jesus Christ.

And even when we do not know how to pray for ourselves the Spirit of Christ Himself intercedes for us.

Romans 8:26 NKJV

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Those who will persist and be faithful must place their faith in the work of Christ which covers our inconsistency and our unbelief.

Conclusion: Our hope in Christ gives us the confidence that we need to continue in prayer to God, even though we often feel deficient. Our prayers matter but our confidence is not in our own prayers but in the depth of God’s mercy to meet us in our need.

1 John 2:1–2 NKJV

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

We aren’t good enough, but Jesus is.