Tonight’s family service took the theme ‘God’s Not Deaf!‘ and featured a game which needed careful attention to instructions, since the participants were blindfolded.
Stephen spoke about the importance of prayer, emphasising:
- our position (Is 59:12) Our sins are the only thing that separate us from God and stop Him listening to us, but even then, His ears are attentive to our cries for help and Jesus has prayed for our protection from the evil one. (Jn 17:15)
- our reaction (Phil 4:6-7). Our response to anxiety and worry has to be bring our petitions before God.
- our power (Js 5:16) Prayer is powerful; James reminds us that the prayers of those made right by God are powerful and effective.
- our path (1 Pet 3:12) God is attentive to our cries and guides us in paths of righteousness.
- our voice (Matt 6:7-15) Jesus reminds us that we do not need to keep babbling in prayer; we can pray according to the model He has given us. Our repentance and humility will receive His response (2 Chron 7:14).
Often, we feel God is too busy to hear us when we pray or that we need a special ‘formula’ to know how to pray. We tend to think more words or louder prayers will do the trick (rather like our tendency to shout at foreigners to make ourselves understood, even though the language barrier is the problem there, not the volume!) We have no need to shout at God, though, for He has excellent hearing and can even hear our thoughts! (see Ps 139). God hears us all the time, hearing our quietest whispers and our loudest screams, hearing our fears, anger, sadness, desperation, happiness and joy.
Sometimes God’s answers to our prayers are not recognised, however, like the man in the joke who drowned because he refused the help of the boat and helicopter sent to rescue him. We need to learn to recognise and accept God’s answers to prayer.