Does God really hear our prayers?
Have you ever asked yourself that? I know that I have. There have been times when I begged God for a miracle, but I felt like He was silent. I prayed and prayed, and then I asked everyone I knew to pray, too.
Silence. But was there really silence? Was God listening after all? Scripture reminds us that God hears our prayers, whether we feel like He does or doesn’t.
Looking back, especially in one particular situation, I could see that God had His hand all over my hard circumstance. While I didn’t get the big miracle I was begging for, there were many little miracles along the way. God sees the big picture and often does things in a way that we don’t understand. Regardless of how God answers our prayers, we don’t need to doubt that God hears us.
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What Does God Say About Hearing Our Prayers
Throughout the Bible, there are many verses to remind us that God hears our prayers. God not only hears our prayers, but He wants us to pray. Philippians 4:6 reminds us that we aren’t to worry, but we are instead to pray to Him about everything . . . even the little things!
We are created to be in a relationship with our Creator, and you can’t have a relationship without communication.
God Hears Our Cries
Often in our weaknesses or trials we cry out to God in despair. We cry and beg and plead in our distress. We are not alone in this. As you can see from the verses below, David often cried to the Lord. David knew without a doubt that God hears our cries.
- “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears.” 2 Samuel 22:7 (ESV)
- “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. Psalm 34:17
- “I had said in my alarm, ‘I am cut off from your sight.’ But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.” Psalm 31:22
God is Always Listening
Does God hear our prayers? As we’ve already seen, God hears our prayers and our cries for help. He is always listening to the prayers of His people. It doesn’t matter whether we feel like He hears us; we can have confidence that He does.
- “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 1 Peter 3:12
- “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:12-13
God Hears Our Prayers Bible Verses
Scripture is literally filled with bible verses to remind us of what God says about hearing our prayers. By studying these verses, we can learn more about prayer and how to deepen our prayer lives. We are reminded to call on the Lord and know that He hears us.
- “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:12-13
- “But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.” Psalm 4:3
- “I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words.” Psalm 17:6
- “I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’” Lamentations 3:55-56
- “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.” Psalm 77:1
- “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.” Psalm 116:1
God Hears Our Prayers Before We Ask
Get this. You don’t even have to pray out loud. God hears your heart and knows your thoughts. God hears our prayers before we ask. How amazing is that? He knows exactly what we need before we can even say it.
- “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24
- “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.” Psalm 139:1-4
God Hears the Prayer of the Righteous
There are some verses that remind us that God hears the prayers of the righteous. If we’re holding onto sin in our hearts or in our lives, He will not listen, and we certainly don’t want that. However, 1 John 1:9 reminds that we only need to confess and He will forgive. God will gladly forgive us for all our unrighteousness. He definitely hears that prayer!
- “The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.” Proverbs 15:29
- “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” John 9:31
- “I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!” Psalm 66:17-20
- “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
God Answers Our Prayers
God not only hears our prayers, but we can have confidence that He answers our prayers as well. He wants us to ask, and He wants to answer. We can trust that however He answers, that’s what is best at that time. God is over all, sees all, and knows all; and He loves us with an everlasting love!
- “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” John 16:24
- “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7
- “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” 1 John 5: 14-15
Does God promise to hear prayers? The resounding answer is YES!
God is always listening, and He hears our cries. He knows our heart, and He wants us to pour out our thankfulness, our adoration, our hurts, and our trials to Him. No longer do you have to wonder if God hears you when you pray. You can know for certain that He does!
I want to leave you with one last verse.
Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Did you catch that? We can come to the Lord in confidence! The confidence in knowing that He will be there in our times of need!
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