Have you ever tried to run a conversation with someone and feel they are not listening? It happens all the time. People may be face to face with you, but their mind is elsewhere. Because of their thinking about something else, they have tuned you out. I have had my children looking at me, yet not hearing a word I said. It’s as if the old saying “the lights are on but nobody’s home” was in effect. I am so thankful that God is not like that. If we are His children, he always listens. Psalms 121 reminds us God never slumbers or sleeps. His eye is always watching, and His ear always hears us.
Psalm 121:2-4 “My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
In Psalm 66:19, we are assured He will hear us, but he also “attended” to His prayers. That doesn’t mean that he will answer them the way that you want. The word attended means, he will take care of it. He will answer in a way that is best for us.
Psalm 66:19 “But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.”
I Peter 3:12 tells us that he is not only listening but that his ears are open to our prayers. He is also against those who do evil. Great news! He hears and is for us and against our enemies.
I Peter 3:12 “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”
We can have all the confidence in the world that he is hearing us, and He will answer according to His will. You may pray for something and it not come to pass, but you must remember: He knows all, and He knows what is best for us in the big picture of life.
1 John 5:14 “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us:”
God knows all! He knows us better than we know ourselves. Hebrews 4:13 confirms that He even knows the intent of our hearts and our thoughts. He always hears us, but sometimes we don’t think we’ve been heard because we don’t like or want to accept His answer.
If you have been praying and don’t feel you’ve been heard, there may be other reasons.
- You may not truly be His child. Saying words does not make you His child. He does the saving, and He must hear the earnest plea for forgiveness and repentance for us to be saved. That is the only prayer he hears of the unsaved.
John 9:31 “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.”
- Another reason you may not get an answer is that there is an unconfessed sin in your heart. If you’ve dug in your heels and determined that something you are doing is okay when God says it’s not, you are living in rebellion against Him. You are holding on to or regarding iniquity in your heart.
Psalm 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”
God always keeps His promises, but there may be conditions to meet. Are your prayers being answered? Are you meeting the conditions? If not, the only person keeping you from getting your prayers answered is you!
