God Answers All Prayers

This is the last message I gave at the skate ministry. It is a rough version of what I actually said at skate night. I do better speaking off the cuff in front of people then typing. I figured I'd post it for family out of state who have shown interest in the skate ministry.

How many of you have asked this question? Does God pay any attention to our prayers? If he does why does he answer some prayers but others he doesn’t? How many of you out there have prayed for something so hard but yet it seemed that God didn’t hear your prayers? I’ve been there praying for what seemed like hours with tears running down my cheeks. Calling out to God to hear my prayers but somehow I never received an answer. I know most of you have had that same experience and wonder why God hasn’t listened to your prayers.

To put rest to some of your doubts the answer is God pays attention to every prayer we pray. I never really understood why God seemed to answer some of my prayers but others he didn’t until my pastor put it this way. “God answers all prayers, however he doesn’t always say yes. He also says no in wisdom.” You see God isn’t a genie in a bottle. It’s not like you bow your head and fold your hands and all prayers you have are answered with a yes. God also says no in wisdom! So the next time it seems he doesn’t answer your prayers the way you think they should be answered remember that.

One person who knew this well was David. David was in hiding from King Saul for 10 years. He moved from cave to cave to avoid detection. In his rough times he wrote beautiful Psalms while he was in hiding. A Psalm is prayer in a song format. David wrote many of these and he knew God heard his prayers and answered all of them. Here is what David wrote about prayer.

Psalms 116:1-2
I love the Lord because he hears and answers my prayers. 2 Because he bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I have breath!

He knew how important it was to pray and that God would answer each of his prayers. Prayer was what David knew was essential to his life. You see God is not distant or far away when we pray. He bends down and listens to every cry. He is there for us just like he was there for David. With David writing that he’d pray as long as he has breath illustrates how important prayer truly is.

We all should pray often to God. Prayer is our communication with God. Without communication how are we supposed to maintain a relationship? All healthy relationships are built and strengthened with excellent communication. So you see it is very important that we don’t put prayer last on our to do list. We must pray often throughout our whole day. God is with us all of the time. Prayer is just a fancy word for talking with God. He is always with us so we should never ignore the availability we have to talk with him in all we do. I pray just like I was talking with a friend who never leaves our side. For instance I might be eating toast and praying to God, or doing a task at work while I pray to God.

So when you pray and it seems God is doing nothing. Remember always even though it is hard to do that we must be patient. God may be saying no to our prayer but he may be saying yes. We must remember that we are on Gods time and not our own. What we want now may be what God wants to give us later. God says yes in wisdom too! We just have to be patient and have faith that we are in Gods hands. This is what is said in Romans…..

Romans 12:12
12 Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful.
Have faith in God and that he will answer your prayers. This is what Matthew wrote about faith and prayer.

Matthew 21:22
22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Now you might be saying to yourself that that bald guy Todd just contradicted what he said above. If God says no in wisdom how do we receive what we’ve asked for that God said no to? I am here to tell you I have not contradicted myself and I have a personal experience that will show you how this is possible.

You see back when the women found me irresistible and I had hair which was in seventh grade. I had this cute little blonde girlfriend named Stacy. One night I was praying for a long time to God. My main request of that prayer was that I marry Stacy and that we have three children together. I even got specific as to request two boys and one girl. Unfortunately when she dumped me the next day I realized a wasted hours praying to God that previous night. So I figured God didn’t hear my prayer. What actually happened is that God had just said no in wisdom.

But then again I had faith that he would answer my prayer, and he did! You see I am now married to a beautiful Red headed Stacey and I have three kids, two boys and one girl exactly as I had requested. So God not only said No in wisdom he said yes because of my faith that he would answer my prayer. He said no and yes in wisdom so I’d be with who I am with today, and I couldn’t be happier about that! So God does answer all prayers!

Matthew 18:1-8
1 One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who was a godless man with great contempt for everyone. 3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, appealing for justice against someone who had harmed her. 4 The judge ignored her for a while, but eventually she wore him out. ‘I fear neither God nor man,’ he said to himself, 5 ‘but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”6 Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this evil judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end, so don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who plead with him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when I, the Son of Man, return, how many will I find who have faith?”

Most people who are in need that don’t rely on God usually give up too early. I’ve heard people say that God never heard my prayers so he isn’t real. What Jesus was illustrating in Matthew 18 is that we must constantly pray. If a judge who doesn’t care about a women or her welfare will grant a request. How much more will God who cares for all of us deeply answer our prayers? You see we tend to forget God cares for every detail in our lives. He is not distant and uncaring. Jesus knew that people wouldn’t be patient and would loose faith because the prayers they prayed were not answer instantly. His heart was heavy with sorrow because of this, because he knows when he returns many will have given up and lost faith. We must be patient with God because he is patient with us. His love is greater then any love you can imagine. Give him time and you will see this to be true.

We also must remember to thank God for all of our blessings. He blesses us greatly when we pray to him and you will know this instantly when it happens. We must always thank God for the blessings he has given us and others as well.

Matthew 6:5
5 “And now about prayer. When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them.

There is a time and place for public prayer. In Church or during a ministry meeting, however we are not to pray for worldly acknowledgement. In other words we are not to pray for public recognition. That is not what prayer is intended for.

Lamentations 2:19
19 Rise during the night and cry out. Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord. Lift up your hands to him in prayer.

God wants our prayer lives to be intimate and un-hindered. He wants us to open up 100% to him with no inhabitations. In public we are not going to dig deep into are personal pain because it is private. However, when in private we have nothing holding us back, we can open up completely and rely on God to help us through our toughest times. God heals us from the inside out so this is important with our relationship with God. It is so important to find private time with God to pray and he can heal. This is so important that even the son of God did this. If the son of God did it, how important do you think it is for us to do this?

Hebrews 5:7-9
7 While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him out of death. And God heard his prayers because of his reverence for God. 8 So even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. 9 In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

God heard his prayer and delivered him out of death through resurrection. However he did die and it was for a reason. Jesus Christ was nailed on the cross to pay our debt. He bled for our sins and died so that we may be forgiven for our sins. You see all of our sins were laid on him so that we would be made righteous before God. It is written in Proverbs 15:29

Proverbs 15:29
29 The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous.

So the question I have for all of you is? Are you wicked or righteous? Most of us like to think we are good people. However without the blood of Christ that paid for our sins. We are all wicked and none are righteous. The only way to become righteous in the eyes of the Lord is to accept Jesus Christ as your savior. If you haven’t done this the offer stands open until his return or until you die. Our time is short and our life can be cut short in the blink of an eye. You have no time to waste, because you never know when your time is up. I encourage you to take the leap of faith that I have made. Accept Jesus Christ as your savior today. It will be the best choice you will have ever made.