How do we know that God hears us when we pray? The thought that God would hear our prayers seems crazy, at least on the surface. First of all, how do we know God actually exists, and we are praying to the correct One? No one today has ever seen God, so He is this all-powerful, mysterious being that is invisible to us. How do we know that He listens when we pray?
Secondly, if we assume God exists, we can safely infer that He is far superior to us. When we look at the beauty, the balance, and the complexity of the creation all around us, we have to believe the Creator of all this must be like, out of this world beyond us. Superior in wisdom, creative ability, and majestic in power. What gives us the right to speak to One so much greater that we are? As King David wrote in Psalm 8: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” We could and should ask this question today.
Thirdly, there are those times when we pray and it feels like our prayers just bounce off the ceiling. We talk to God and get radio silence in return. We beg God for healing and cry out to Him and we do not get any discernible answer. It feels our prayers just echo around in an empty room. How do we know God is listening when God seems so silent?
These are honest questions- questions that we’ve all probably had at some point. Maybe there is one of these questions you are wrestling with now. I think it is crucial that we wrestle address the hard questions as an act of faith. God is big enough to handle them! Maybe you just need a reminder that we serve an almighty God, who loves us, hears us, and answers prayer.
Last week we looked at Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He asked His Father to take away the bitter cup of suffering that He was about to endure. Though God did not answer this prayer the way Jesus was asking for, it serves as a beautiful model for how we may approach our Heavenly Father with Trust, directness, and submission today. This weekend we will ask and answer the question: “How can we have any confidence that God hears our prayers?”
I invite you to join with us this Easter weekend as we explore the discovery of the empty tomb on Sunday morning with the 3 women named in Mark 16:1-8. This is the ultimate answer to prayer and gives us confidence that God hears our prayers today./
Our Saturday service is 3:30 in the afternoon, and our Sunday morning service is at 10:15, where you can join us online or in person. We will not have Sunday School classes this weekend, so families can stay and celebrate together. We will resume our normal schedule next week.
Have a great weekend and I look forward to pursuing Christ, Community, and the Great Commission Together with you soon!
-Pastor Nathan Rice