Why does it feel like God doesn’t hear our prayers?
Why does He seem uninterested in our lives? Why does life remain so challenging when we’ve pounded heaven for help?
The other morning as I prayed for my son on the way to school, I asked God to nudge him when an assignment was due. He is a good student, but struggles in this area. Later that afternoon he popped into my office and asked to borrow my computer for a big assignment he just remembered was due the next day.
It got me thinking. How does our belief and trust in God’s goodness aid His ability to answer our prayers?
My daughter is currently half a world away in a predominantly Muslim country and I have no fear. I rarely pray for her well being. But I think my life is her prayer. I really trust God with her. I know He’s got her and is doing tremendous things in her life.
And I trust that if something comes up He’ll give me that nudge to cover her in prayer.
My lack of a focused prayer life used to bother me. I come from a background where being an intercessor looked like a lot of hard work. Drudgery. Painful servitude to a God who was powerful enough to move mountains, but whose attention was very difficult to get; requiring focus and hours of petition.
I operated from a misguided belief that if I didn’t pray, then God wouldn’t intervene and bad things could happen. It put so much responsibility on my perfectionist shoulders.
Getting A Lens Change
But as I’ve grown close to Him…as I’ve worked through my bondages and pain, and experienced His unfathomable kindness toward me, I’ve learned something vitally important. He is always good. He is always kind. He always has His best in mind for me.
I can trust Him. With anything.
But I’ve worked to get healed of soul wounds and blockages like unforgiveness and fear that hindered my ability to trust Him and warped my view of His character. Many of us lack the awareness (because it seems too scary and dangerous to face) that our head knowledge that God is good is not what we believe at the core of our hearts. It’s when we can start facing these contrasting parts of our belief systems (belief vs. heart experience) that we can grow in intimacy with God.
And the reason I say that we’ll start growing toward God is that the truth is God IS good. So when our experience says otherwise, we need to poke into that experience and see where we were lied to so we can gain the healing we need for both our heart and our head to agree that HE IS GOOD!
Another way of looking at it, is if our lives were a six-lane freeway, how many car wrecks, piles of debris, and pot holes hinder our ability to cruise along freely with God?
How many of satan’s emissary’s are hiding behind piles of soul debris ready to shoot reminder arrows of fear and unforgiveness to keep us trapped in darkness? And it’s not as if all of our soul is in darkness. We can have areas of freedom and areas of damage.
When we don’t get the debris field of our souls cleaned up, how easily can we hear Him speak to our hearts or experience His goodness?
When we start getting healed up, our lens changes. We see more clearly. Our thinking isn’t clouded by the enemy’s lies of shame and condemnation. We experience His love and delight in us. And we pray from a place of trust, rather than from the doubt of a hindered soul.
Prayer
Father, show me the path to get my soul healed. Teach me how to break agreements with the enemy’s lies. Show me when I am agreeing with thoughts that are counter to truth and create damage in my soul. Teach me how to be fed by Your word. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Pictures via Pixabay
Recent Comments