Articles
Confident Prayers
In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus got scared. When Lazarus died, Jesus wept. While on the cross, Jesus cried out, “’Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’)”. No problem is too insignificant to bring to the Lord because He understands what it is like to face struggles and temptations as a human. Hebrews 4:15-16 (ESV) says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Another reason to be confident in our hopeful confessions to God is because He is always faithful. (Hebrews 10:23) Nothing can stop God from carrying out His goodness and loving will towards His children. In Jeremiah 29:11, God says to His children, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Since each person is a spiritual being with a physical body, our greatest hope is in Christ. Due to His divine body and blood being shed on the cross, everyone has the opportunity to reconcile themselves with God and join His eternal family.
If nothing can stop God’s will for His family, then do our prayers even matter? When the Israelites were waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain, they got anxious and thought they had been abandoned. Therefore, they asked Aaron, the high priest, to make an image of a golden calf for them to worship. God saw that His people turned away from Him and just before He was about to unleash His wrath on the Israelites, Moses prayed for mercy on their behalf. The Lord relented and spared the descendants of Abraham because of Moses’ prayer. Without a doubt prayers matter!
Matthew 7:7-11 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Praying faithfully entails open and honest communication with God. Trust Him and know that your prayers will lovingly be answered.
