{"id":52678,"date":"2020-03-21T22:48:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T03:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/?p=52678"},"modified":"2025-08-06T12:31:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T17:31:04","slug":"devotional-god-hears-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/devotional-god-hears-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional: God Wants Your Prayers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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God wants our prayers! Since creating Adam, He has yearned to be in close relationship with us.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Especially during the moments we find hard and scary, God<\/a><\/strong> wants us to bring our fears and doubts. Because He cares. He is listening. He is working through all circumstances<\/em> for the good of those who love Him. Take heart<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Good<\/a>
Bridging the Gap blog #hurthealedwhole<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For 50+ years, Josh McDowell<\/span><\/a> Ministry has been leading seekers into a deeper knowledge of God\u2019s truth and power. We offer you our accumulated knowledge and research<\/span><\/a> to help you find truth and encouragement to live a healthy and whole life in Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

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God Loves Our Prayers<\/h2>\n

Why would God want our prayers<\/a><\/strong>? Because we are important to Him. So important <\/em>that He assumed human form to demonstrate how far and wide and high and deep is His ceaseless love for us. But God isn’t our magic genie. He’s the Creator of the Universe. <\/span>So when we pray, we affirm that He is in control. Then we can cast off the weight of the world, and let God shoulder it and work things out.\u00a0<\/span>
\nRight now, during the global coronavirus panic, you might think you’ll be bothering God if you add to the line of prayers already flowing His way. But take heart: God has power over life and death<\/a><\/strong> itself! So how are a few billion simultaneous prayers too hard for Him?<\/span><\/p>\n

Bottom line: bandwidth is a limitation only for us, not God.<\/h2>\n

In His Word, God continually reminds us to chat Him up. To tell Him about the lows, and to thank Him for the highs. <\/span>God knows what we need before we pray,<\/em> but He wants to hear us admit our dependence on Him. He wants to hear that we trust Him<\/a> <\/strong>to act.
\nLife is so tough<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0at times, that it can feel<\/span> difficult to fully love and trust God. But judging God from our thin sliver of perspective allows Satan a victory we should never hand him. So pray when you don’t know what else to do. <\/span>
\nWhether at your desk or behind the wheel of your car … on your knees, or prone on your living room floor … using full sentences, or broken moans … cast your cares upon God. Know that He understands your pain, and that His heart hurts for you.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sometimes God lets you be in a situation that only He can fix so that you can see that He is the One who fixes it. Rest. He’s got it.”\u00a0 ~ Tony Evans<\/h2>\n
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Three Truths About Prayer:<\/h2>\n

Prayer is for OUR benefit, not God’s. God is already working for our good. The Bible tells us how to pray<\/a>:<\/strong> authentically, with humility and thankfulness. Every prayer gets answered, though not always in the way we think best. But if we choose to take the Bible as truth, believing that God works for our good, we can humbly say, “Okay, Lord. This doesn’t feel good. But I trust you to bring beauty from the ashes. I love you.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Next Steps:<\/h2>\n

> Do you want to have a relationship with Jesus? Start here<\/a>.
\n> We’d love to pray for you! Please send us a prayer request via this form<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong>
\n> Print out these Bible verses about prayer<\/a><\/strong>! Read them. Believe them. Memorize some!
\n> Catch up on our Bridging the Gap<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0posts. Experience God in a deeper way!<\/span><\/span>
\n> We invite you to read Josh’s book, More Than a Carpenter<\/a><\/strong>. <\/em>This short apologetics classic examines evidence about Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God wants our prayers! Since creating Adam, He has yearned to be in close relationship with us.\u00a0 Especially during the moments we find hard and scary, God wants us to bring our fears and doubts. Because He cares. He is listening. He is working through all circumstances for the good of those who love Him. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23327,"featured_media":53040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Prayers. Are they worth our time? Is God really listening? Does prayer work? Do only certain people get their prayers answered? Read more >>","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[904,905,269,906,263,821],"translator":[],"blog-author":[78],"class_list":["post-52678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bridging-the-gap","tag-does-god-answer-prayer","tag-pray","tag-prayer","tag-prayers","tag-trust","tag-trusting-god","blog-author-josh-mcdowell-ministry-team"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/607\/2020\/03\/God-wants-to-hear-our-prayers-scaled-e1584822207991.jpg","meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92761,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52678\/revisions\/92761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52678"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=52678"},{"taxonomy":"blog-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-author?post=52678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}