God calls us to approach His throne of grace to receive His help at any time, any place, and for any purpose. As we pray without ceasing and commune with our Daddy God throughout the day about our joys and sorrows, as well as our needs, He always hears us (John 14:13).
We do not reserve our prayers only for desperate times and measures. We pray continually in our heart to the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). He may not grant the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4) in the way or the timing that we want Him to or expect Him to, but He always proves that He loves us.
Our prayers do not need “thee and thou” to be effective. They are not required to be loud or soft – just heart-felt words in a conversational tone. He will often answer our prayers before we finish expressing our need to Him (Isaiah 65:24).
At other times, He will not provide our needs, because we failed to ask Him for them (James 4:2-3). We will find that He has a higher purpose for us and that His foremost desire is a deeper union with us than we can ever imagine (1 John 3:21-23).
As we seek God’s forgiveness for our sins and unbelief (John 3:18), prove our love to God by keeping His commandments (John 14:15), totally surrender our expectations to Him, and live a life pleasing to Him to the best of our abilities, He counts us as part of His adopted family and a devoted follower (Proverbs 21:12).
We get God’s attention when we stop walking by sight, and instead, start walking by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7-9). We can never imagine what He has in store for those who put their whole faith in His faithfulness, as we also trust in His timing and His purposes, rather than in our own plans and goals (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Prayer:
Father God, teach us to rely on Your perfect timing and way while we allow patience to perfect us as we wait on You (James 1:4-8). Your Word gives us examples of people who lost patience in waiting on You, and they devised their own plans to fulfill their needs. Some of them reaped consequences that are still affecting us to this day and time. Thank You for showering us with Your gracious grace.
Remind us to listen as well as to ask during our times of prayer, so that we can receive Your instruction, hope, and peace throughout the day. We know that we matter to You, that we are enough - although we do not deserve Your love, and that we can never earn Your favor by performing works of our own contriving (Ephesians 2:8-9). We love You with a deep and abiding love that comes from walking in Your ways and growing in our unity with You (Psalm 128:1-2).
Thought for the Day:
Listening to God as we pray is much more effective than filling His ears with our requests and then running off to check off more items on our to-do list; sitting still in a listening mode is very hard for those of us in the age of instant foods and microwaves, but this practice pays big dividends in our intimacy with God.
