I started to title today's message, "It Isn't Possible Without a Relationship", but I don't want to focus on the negative. The focus should always be on the positive outcomes associated with having a relationship with our God. I'm not exactly sure where this one is going, but I have had this laying heavy on my heart. So many times, we tell others that we are praying for them, or as we pray for our own situations and needs we ask God to intervene and in some cases perform what would best be described as a miracle. To ask our God for His divine intervention in any situation is assuming a number of things. First, we believe God hears our individual prayers. Second, we have to be confident that God will be attentive to our prayers. Lastly, we have to understand that although God hears and responds to our prayers, His response may not fit our cookie cutter request verbatim. As I scribe this opening paragraph, I'm seeing three separate Flat Tire messages, today we will focus our time on believing God hears our individual prayers.
How is it possible that God can hear the individual prayers of millions and millions of people all over the world? In our human minds it is inconceivable and rightfully so. I have a hard enough time focusing my attention on any one conversation with all the conflicting noise that surrounds us each minute of our waking day. It is not possible for you or I or any other person to give each individual or group the attention that they would like to have in voicing their thoughts and requests. When we relegate God to our human capacity, we obviously have not arrived at a place where we better understand who God is and what He is capable of doing.
"In the beginning, God created ..." Genesis 1. Throughout the first chapter of the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament we are introduced to the fact that God created everything! How do I know this to be true? Would not science tell us that this is humanly inconceivable? Doesn't this conflict with the historical timeline that scientists have pieced together through research and scientific methodology? The short answer may appear to be yes, but just as it is not conceivable in human terms to believe that God can hear the prayers of millions of men, women, and children around the world, the true response is God does. If we try to limit our God in comparing Him to our human limitations that would also be boxing in our God's omnipotent power and omniscient capabilities. How can I know for a fact that God created all things? Because His Holy Bible says it happened that way and that is that. Hear the Apostle Paul's explanation of God's omnipotence and our reliance on His Holy Spirit to the Church in Corinth found in I Corinthians 2:9-16.
"However, as it is written: "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived" - the things God has prepared for those who love him - these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, "Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?"But we have the mind of Christ."
We must have the Spirit of God in us to accept the omnipotent power of God. This is not possible if we place God in the same realm as our human existence. To believe that God can do all things, including anything we can imagine or pray to Him about, is to trust that God is God and God is capable of doing things that no human mind can explain or understand. That is not possible unless we first have a relationship with God.
Then how do we develop a relationship with God that allows us to believe He hears us even when we do not see the evidence or receive the confirmation that God heard our prayers and understands what we need? We trust that God hears us and that He weaves our prayers into His ultimate plan which as Paul shared above is not comprehendable to our human nature, "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived - the things God has prepared for those who love Him". (vs. 9)
To trust that God hears your prayers requires that we have a relationship with God. Trust is fundamental to any relationship. We trust our mother and father as they protect us and provide for us as babies and throughout our childhood. We trust that adults who teach us and coach us are teaching us sound learning that stands the test of time. We trust our spouse as we commit to marriage vows that promise to care for one another in sickness and in need. Yet, there is no trusting relationship that compares to our trust in the power of our God. In all of our other relationships we can see the person and we develop the trust over daily encounters with that person. In a different, but similar manner, we build a trusting relationship with God through daily time spent studying His Holy Bible, listening to His Word being taught and shared with us through teachings and sermons, and then meditating with and praying to our God. As we spend time with Him, although we cannot see Him physically, we begin to understand that He is always there. We may not be able to explain it to someone who does not have a relationship with God, but that does not change the fact that He is here. He always has been, and always will be. He is God and He is here.
If you do not have a relationship with God that places your trust in Him and believes in His ability to do anything and everything, then I would suggest you start today. Find your quiet time, block out the noise of your phone or any other distraction, and begin a conversation with Him. Seek God and you will find Him. (Jeremiah 29:13). The more time we spend with God in prayer and meditation, the more real He will become to you and the more you will understand and believe that God hears your prayers.
Believe and Pray on!
Coach Carter
