So many times I’ve heard real stories from real people of prayers being answered in their lives. I have also heard many stories of prayers that were never answered.
All of us have probably experienced both scenarios or know of someone who has. Does it ever make you wonder if God picks and chooses which prayers He wants to answer? Are some prayers more important than others? Why did only one of my prayers get answered and the one I thought was most important get seemingly disregarded?
Questions like these could go on and on. These are great questions to ask and would probably fill the pages of many books in giving biblical answers for them.
The question I would like to ask in regards to prayer is not how deep your prayer life is, but how deep is your relationship with God?
Over the years I have discovered that if you develop relationships with people, you not only get to know them better, but you gain a friend. I suppose that is common sense, but often times we don’t even know the people who live right next to us.
As I’ve written before, my neighbors and I have developed great friendships. All of us are always willing to lend a hand or let each other borrow anything at anytime. We check up on each other and share many laughs together. You can’t put a price tag on that.
We need to understand that our relationship with God is similar to our other relationships. The only exception is that God will love you no matter if you never return the shovel He let you borrow…ok, God isn’t making shovels magically appear, but I hope you get the picture.
It’s God’s desire to give. He’s constantly waiting to bless us. Have you ever given someone you love a gift that you just couldn’t wait for them to open? You probably had a big smile on your face just at the thought of watching them open their gift…God is like that.
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Countless times have I prayed and nothing happened. After deepening my relationship with God I then prayed the same prayer again and guess what…I got an answer. Turns out it was me who was in the way not God. It was my relationship with Him that made the difference.
The depth of relationship with God will directly affect your depth in prayer. The more we come to know God the more we realize our dependence on Him. In other words, our faith grows…and it’s the prayer of obedient faith, not just prayer, that makes all the difference.
Prayer is birthed out of faith and faith from admitting our dependency on God.
– How deep is your relationship with God?
– What has He been calling you to do that requires a deeper relationship with Him and admitting your dependence on Him?
– Have you ever asked God what He would want you to pray for?
– Where is He calling you to go that will cost you faith to get there?
Nowell Hardin 