while today

Does God really hear our prayers?  Sometimes we wonder about this. Perhaps we wonder if He hears because the very thought of it is so grand and so wonderful.  Would the Almighty listen to me?  Does the creator of the universe care for me and my struggles?  It seems too wonderful to be true, and yet, make no mistake, it is true!  What a kind and loving God we serve.

Perhaps another reason we wonder if God truly hears us is because we don’t understand His grace.  If we don’t understand His grace, we will feel completely unable to come before Him, and unwelcome when we do.  Martin Luther once said that in the monastery, he was never taught to ask in prayer.  But when he discovered in the scriptures the doctrine of justification by grace, it taught him to approach God freely. The biblical teaching of justification by grace assures us that we are in a right standing with God, not because of our goodness, not because of our ability to live up to God’s holy standard, but because of the death of Jesus on our behalf.  We are “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 3:24 NAS95).

How does this knowledge of justification by grace help us to pray?  If we have been justified, we have been made right with God.  We have been declared not guilty through Jesus Christ.  If this is the case, and if we are walking faithfully with Christ, what reason is there to think that God is angry at us, or disappointed in us, and that He will not hear us?  God gave His Son so that we could be in a relationship with Him.  Why then would we think that He isn’t concerned about us, or doesn’t want to be “bothered” by our problems?  Here is the amazing truth of the matter:  “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…” (Hebrews 10:19-22a NAS95)  Let us draw near to God!  Draw near to Him with confidence!  Come to Him in full assurance of faith! It’s all been made possible by the cleansing blood of Jesus!  There is nothing that stands between you and God in Christ.  May God help us to trust in His grace and believe that He hears our prayers.

—Scott Colvin