Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Have you ever been talking to somebody and it's very clear that they're just not hearing a single word that you're saying? Maybe they pull their phone out and they start to get distracted on that. Or you're sitting with a friend or significant other at the end of the day, and you notice that they're watching the TV more than they're watching you, or they're just spaced out and they're nodding along going, mm-hmm, and you know that every single word that goes in one ear is just coming out the other.
I've been there too. I've been the one that has just sat there as somebody talked and I just went, mm-hmm. Then my mind starts thinking about, what am I going to eat for dinner tonight? I wonder if we have any weekend plans. Oh no, did I send that email out? My mind gets so scattered and distracted because there's so many things that I have on my plate, and it's hard enough to listen to somebody else talk about all their things, too.
Have you ever wondered that when we pray, when we talk to God, that this might be what happens to Him? I mean, with all the stuff that we have to share, there's millions and millions and millions of other people lifting up all their prayer requests, all these things. It gets you wondering, can God really hear all of them? Or are there days where He just has to go, 'mm-hmm'?
God Hears Us
Well, if you've ever felt that way, I've got a really encouraging Verse of the Day for you. It comes from one of my favorite books in the Bible, 1 John chapter 5, verse 14: "And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him."
What an inspiration to lean into prayer more—that we can be confident that whatever we ask of God that pleases Him, He will hear it. He doesn’t just sit there and go, yeah, sure, sure, sure. He's actually listening to every single word that we have to say. He's not getting distracted. There's not too many prayer requests that He's trying to listen to at the same time. His potential to hear is limitless. We could all be coming to Him all day long, and guess what? It is still not too much for our God to hear.
Growing in Prayer
That sort of privilege, to get to go before God in prayer and know that He hears it, sure should kick us into this mode of wanting to grow in our prayer lives. I mean, I love that the disciples who grew up in the Jewish faith, they would have been praying for as long as they were able to talk, reciting these words from the Scriptures, lifting up prayers to God. Yet they ask Jesus, "Lord, teach us how to pray," because they realized that there was a gap from where they were presently in their prayer lives to where they could be, because God had open ears and He wanted to hear from them.
Let me share with you just two tips for growing in your prayer life in this season. The first one is that we should be speaking to God like He's actively listening, because He is, right? Sometimes when you're sitting with a friend and it's all casual, you guys are just kind of babbling back and forth, and if somebody were to jump into the conversation and go, hey, what were you talking about? you'd go, I don't know. What were we talking about? Nothing, really. Sometimes if we're not careful, we can just sort of meander around in our prayers with God. We'll start praying about one thing, and then we'll get distracted, and we'll come back in, and we'll get distracted again, and we'll come back in, and all of a sudden, you don't really even know what you're praying for.
When we pray, it should be like sitting across from Him at the dinner table after a long day where He's locked in, eyes focused on you, saying, "Tell me everything that's on your heart. What's getting you excited right now? What's weighing you down? What are you afraid of? What are you hoping for?" That's how we should be actively talking to God, because He's actively listening.
Keep His Will at the Center
The second is that as we pray, we need to keep His will at the center. Now, we might not always know God's exact will for our lives, but what we should do in those moments is ask Him to reveal it. See, God hears everything that we have to say to Him, but what moves Him into action are the prayers that are in line with His will, because He wants to see His will accomplished in your life. When you ask for those things, there's nothing that's going to stop Him from doing it. Because I love what John writes afterwards in 1 John chapter 5, verse 15. He says, "And since we know that He hears us when we make our requests, we also know that He will give us what we ask for."
It's not just this empty hope that if we ask Him, He might give it to us. When we pray for God's will to be revealed in our lives, when we pray for the boldness to step into that, we can have a confidence that He's going to bring it. We can know that His will is the best thing for our lives. Let's be a people of prayer. Let's go before God confidently. He is sitting there waiting. He's saying, talk to Me more and more. As we spend time with Him, we not only get to share our hearts with Him, but we get to learn about His heart. That is something that is so beautiful and something that I don't want any of us to miss out on.
