Does God Hear Me When I Pray? It Depends On Who My Father Is

This is a bit long today .. no apologies .. just a heads up

"In that day you will ask in My name…" —John 16:26

““Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Then why should we ask? The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him. If we pray only because we want answers, we will become irritated and angry with God. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove that God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God’s grace.” OSWALD CHAMBERS

There is a very subtle implication in what Chambers said.  If my grandson was to go to someone who lives on our block and ask for $20 so he can take his girlfriend to the movies, he would most likely be turned away.  The reason? That person has no connection with my grandson and no obligation to give him anything. He might even be told, “Go ask someone in your own family.”  Jesus said “your Father”.  Jesus was saying for those whose Father is the Creator God, He knows what His children need, before they ask. Well, what about those who are not His children? I refer you back to my grandson. 

We don’t like to think about God turning people away.  Especially when people are in trouble. Martie and I were called to Illinois recently.  My oldest sister was in the hospital.  She was in trouble, medically speaking.  Things did not look good.  The doctors did not have much hope.  The family was frantic.  Her husband was desperate for answers.  They were reluctantly coming to grips with the fact that end of my sister’s life here on earth was coming to an end.  My sister is a Believer and she has hope beyond this life. She couldn’t talk because of the tube in her lungs, so she wrote a note on her tablet to me, “I may be going to heaven today.”  Her husband and daughter asked me to pray for her … every day I was there, several times a day.  I rallied the Saints that we know across the U.S. to pray for her. My two brothers headed to Peoria to be with the family in anticipation of her passing.  There was a lot of weeping.

And then something happened.  God showed up!  The nurse put a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) wristband on her.  When the doctor removed the tube, to their surprise, Sherry started breathing on her own.  She needed supplemental oxygen, but she needed that before this hospital visit.  The first time they tried to remove the tube she had a minor heart attack and could not breath so they had put the tube back in.  God heard the prayers of the Saints.  I believe that He restored my sister, not only for her good, but for His glory.  

Paul said “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8)  During the course of this time with my sister, someone said, half joking, “I hope my faith is real.” Dr. Del Tackett, from Focus on the Family, asked the question “Do you believe that what you believe is really real” Do you? 

Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 15:17-19) “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” I cannot convince anyone that my faith is real.  They can see my life and those things that happen, but they can attribute those things to something else, not God.  It is the Spirit of God that will confirm and affirm the reality of your faith. 

So back to the room in the CICU (Cardiac Intensive Care Unit).  Jesus said "If your Father is not the God of heaven then he is the god of this world." (John 8:42-47)  Telling people that there father is the devil will not endear them to you.  They prefer to think that they are independent.  On their own. The captain of their own ship.  Nope .. not true.  So when times get tough and they have no alternative but to seek the Creator God, well it is like knocking on the door if a neighbor’s house.  I believe that the only prayer that God will hear from the lost is the prayer for salvation. It does not matter how desperate you are.  How much you plead to or promise God to make a bad situation go away.  If you are not His child He has no obligation to respond to you.  I believe my sister was healed by the prayers of the Saints not the lost huddled up, wringing their hands in the waiting room.  

It has been 5 days since Sherrie had the tube removed.  Today she is at home.  (Liking posts on Facebook) And now that the crisis is over, people are going back to their routines.  I don't think most are not thinking about God but all are thankful that Sherrie is better. But, I am trusting that a few, maybe even only one, will turn their hearts toward God because of what they witnessed -  a miracle. My desire is that they will pray the one prayer that God will hear and that they will find eternal life in His Son. Because He is risen, indeed! CHARLEY