God Will Hear. God Will Answer

Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.”

Daniel 10:12

Do you pray every day?

Do you pray in moments of crisis or doubt?

I don’t pray every day—but I should. I know I should pray, and I know that prayer makes living life easier in ways large and small. I know I should pray, but too often I allow myself to be distracted, to get caught up in the moment, and to be too undisciplined to keep my focus where I know it belongs—on God, and on what He wants.

Why should I pray? Why should you pray?

We know prayer is a good idea because Jesus Himself took the time to teach us what a good prayer looks like and sounds like in Matthew 6. Jesus reiterates the importance of prayer in Luke 11. There is no doubt but that Jesus wants us to understand that prayer is a good thing, something we should do often.

Jesus also reminds us in these same passages that prayer is our communion with God. Prayer is how we turn our hearts and our minds to Him. Prayer is how we open ourselves up to hearing—sensing, perhaps just feeling—what it is He wants from us in any given moment.

Prayer is not so much us asking for forgiveness, or blessings, or bountiful things, but an answer to a simple yet important question: “Lord, what should I do?”

If we are sober and serious in how we live our lives we already know we should “do the right thing.” We already know we should seek to uphold God’s Law and carry out God’s Will.

Knowing that is the easy part. The hard part is translating that—translating God’s commandments to us—into discrete actions. The hard part is figuring out specifically what we should do, specifically what we should say, and specifically where we should go.

So we must pray. We must pray to focus our minds on God. We must pray to calm the chaotic voices and thoughts which swirl around inside everyone’s head, that we might hear God, that we might listen to what He has to say—and if we take the time to listen we find that God always has something to say.

There have been many times in my day job where I have felt an oppressive weight of conflict, where I have had to have awkward and unpleasant conversations with either clients, or colleagues, or supervisors.

In many of these awkward moments, I have stepped back, bowed my head, and prayed.

When I have stepped back, bowed my head, and prayed, I have heard a small voice in the back of my brain telling me what I must do, and even what I must say.

When I listen to that small voice in the back of my brain, the awkward moment becomes less awkward.

Is that small voice God speaking to me? Certainly there is not something so supernatural as a burning bush, nor as terrifying as a voice from the clouds, nor as dramatic as a lightning flash to accompany that voice from the clouds. There is not a chorus of angels amplifying the message and giving it a divine majestic feel.

Yet that small voice gives good counsel. That small voice puts my mind at ease and helps me function better in difficult moments.

That small voice is always there. I don’t always listen—I don’t always even try to listen—but when I do listen, that small voice has something to say.

Is that small voice God speaking to me? I believe that it is.

That small voice does not tell me what I want to hear. Usually, what that small voice tells me to do is something that is difficult and challenging. Perhaps that small voice reminds me to be diligent in grounding myself in the facts surrounding a particular problem. Perhaps that small voice instructs me to take a clear stance on principle. Perhaps that small voice reminds me to be sober, judicious, and above all professional in my choice of words, so as to avoid saying something for which I will need to apologize later.

That small voice is always reassuring. That small voice is constant. That small voice is reliable.

Is that small voice God speaking to me? I am sure that it is.

That small voice is how I know that, when I pray, God will hear. That small voice is how I know that, when I pray, God will answer.

Why should I pray? Why should you pray? We should pray that we might hear that small voice. We should pray that we might listen to God answering.

We should not look for God to answer our prayers with either a “Yes” or a “No.” We should not look for God to deliver a miracle, or to give us whatever it is we think we want. We should not pretend that God will attend upon our wants, or our desires.

Rather, we do well to remember that we are to attend upon what God wants—that we serve God, and not the other way around.

We do well to remember that God will tell us what we need to hear that we might do what He wants us to do.

We do well to remember that God commands and we obey. That is how God created the world, and that is how God created mankind.

We should understand that if God puts a task before us, He means for us to accomplish that task. He means for us not only to finish, but to succeed.

If we will but listen, God will tell us what we need to hear that we might do all that He has put before us, that we might achieve all that God wants us to achieve.

If we will but pray, God will hear. If we will but pray, God will answer.

My prayer this day is that I will always hear that small voice in the back of my brain. My prayer this day is that I will always heed what that small voice has to say. My prayer this day is that I will listen when God is telling me what I must do, and that I will actually do it.

My prayer for you this day is that you will always hear that small voice in the back of your brain. My prayer for you this day is that you will always heed what that small voice has to say. My prayer for you this day is that you will listen when God is telling you what you must do, and that you will actually do it.

We should pray that we might listen to God answering.

We should not look for God to answer our prayers with either a “Yes” or a “No.” We should not pretend that God will attend upon our wants or our desires.

We should understand that if God puts a task before us, He means for us to accomplish that task. He means for us not only to finish, but to succeed.

If we will but listen, God will tell us what we need to hear that we might do all that He has put before us, that we might achieve all that God wants us to achieve.

If we will but pray, God will hear. If we will but pray, God will answer.