As believers, we can approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, knowing that He loves us, and loves to answer our prayers. Of course, we know that He doesn’t always answer the way we hope, or expect, but He has our best interests at heart, and if we trust Him, He will bring about the best outcomes in our lives.
We can approach with confidence – we don’t need to come to God begging and pleading. In fact the Bible tells us in Philippians 4:6,7 -
6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.…
The rest of verse 16 says, ‘so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need’. We all have times of need, where we look to God for help, because we can’t fix things ourselves. Maybe there are problems we are facing, and we need God’s wisdom. Perhaps we know of needs in our families, and we know that only God can do what needs to be done. It's such a comfort to come to our Heavenly Father in prayer and know that He will come to our aid.
When my youngest granddaughter was 16 she went through a rebellious stage and of course I was praying for her often – that she would come back to God. Two years has gone by, and last week she rang me…..
My parents were good-living people, but they were not Christians and seemed to have no place in their lives for God. I prayed for them from when I was about ten years old. It took many years, but both my Mum and Dad made their peace with God at the end of their lives. We should never give up praying, just because we haven’t seen the answer to our prayers yet. The key word is ‘yet’. God will answer – but He may not answer in the time frame that we think is reasonable.
We need to understand the importance of prayer, the power of prayer, the privilege of prayer and the benefits of prayer. It’s such a blessing and a privilege that we can pray anytime, anywhere, and know that God will hear us and help us.
You remember in Nazareth that Jesus didn’t do many mighty works. The Bible says ‘because of their unbelief’. We need to believe God, when we pray.
And finally, we should realise that many times we miss out on wonderful answers to prayer, because we don’t realise what is available to us in prayer and therefore we neglect to pray.
You may have heard the story of the old man who saved up to buy a ticket on a cruise ship, travelling from the UK to America. This was in the early days of cruise ships. He enjoyed the trip, but he refused to go to the dining room. Instead, he would go to his room and eat some of the bread and cheese he had brought along with him on the journey.
Each day, the purser would invite him to come to dinner, but he always refused. When the ship reached its destination, and the passengers were disembarking, the purser spotted the old man coming towards him, and he couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer. He stopped the man and asked him, “Sir, I am really curious as to why you refused to come to the dining room for your meals. Can you tell me why”?
“Well, said the old man, it took me so long to save for my ticket. I really couldn’t afford to pay for meals as well”.
He didn’t know that the meals were included. How sad. Yet we Christians often go through life, not bringing our needs to God in prayer, because we don’t realise all that God has provided for us.
'More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.'
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