Why would God listen to my prayers?
Few things are more frustrating than trying to have a conversation with someone who is not listening. As you’re talking, you see him look down at his watch, or, even worse, take out his phone and start scrolling. It’s frustrating at best and downright insulting at worst. Clearly, the person you’re talking to is communicating that he has something much better to do than listen to you.
Often, when we pray, we feel as though God is not listening. We’ve come to believe that we don’t deserve his attention because of what we’ve done. Or, we imagine he must have a lot on his plate, running the universe and all, so we really shouldn’t bother him with our troubles. We might get frustrated with a friend who picks up his phone in the middle of a conversation, but surely, God has a good reason to be too busy for us.
Our picture of a distant God who is too busy for us might seem spiritual, but it proves far from the biblical image of God. In fact, the picture the Bible paints of prayer is that God the Father hears our prayers just like his Son Jesus. It is as if we speak with Jesus’s voice when we pray.
In describing God’s great work of rescuing us, the Apostle Paul recounts:
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal 4:4-7)
God the Father sent God the Son to redeem us—that is to deliver us by his payment on the cross. Once he freed us, God did not leave us alone, but he adopted us as his children. More specifically, Paul says that we were adopted as sons, not because he doesn’t like daughters, but because we now share in the Son’s relationship to the Father. When we trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life, the Father looks on us and sees Jesus.
The Holy Spirit gets involved as well. The Father sends the Spirit of Jesus into our hearts to enable us to call on God as our Father just as Jesus did. The whole Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is actively engaged when we pray.
As those who through faith in Christ have been adopted by God, we can now pray like our Lord Jesus. We can pray like the Son of God because his Spirit is now in our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” (4:6). When we pray in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Spirit, we can pray with boldness and confidence, knowing that our Father hears our prayers. Our Father hears and answers our prayers in his wisdom, love, and power (Mk 7:7-11).
