He Does Not Reject Our Prayers

Jul 9, 2020Written Devotionals

“ Blessed be God, Who has not rejected my prayer nor removed His mercy and loving-kindness from being [as it always is] with me.”    Psalm 66:20    Amplified Bible

How many people are there in your life that, when you hear from them (whether by phone, email, text or letter), you sigh within yourself because you know they want something from you?  You know the people. The phone rings, you see their number come up on the phone screen, and you inwardly sigh because you know if they are calling, they want probably want you to do something or want something from you.  Sadly, that is a reflection of many of us of our prayer life.  Jesus doesn’t hear from us unless there is something we want or need.  Thankfully, He does not have the same response to us that we feel inside for those who do that to us. He delights in the time that He has with you.

He always delights in hearing from you, in being with you and yet you need to ask yourself what is the motivation and the emotion behind your prayers?  Too often our prayers are cold, impersonal, lacking in warmth and a little defensive.  We want what we want but we don’t want to open the door too wide because that might require more of us than we might want to give.  The time of prayer becomes less about relationship and more about mere steps in a process to achieve a goal. 

When people you love are removed from your immediate life you look forward to any contact with them.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s the total joy of being with them, or merely seeing them on FaceTime.  Even a phone call or email is a treasure.  So precious is their communication that even seeing that you have just a short text message from them elicits great anticipation. You long for that communication and shared moments of any kind.  This is the way that it should be with Jesus.  There is no one that loves you more completely or purely than Jesus.  He both created you and made it possible to dwell within you all the time.  That speaks of His devotion to us and desire to be with us. 

Despite this we often realize that our prayer time is really little more than selfish desires.  We come to Him with our desires, fears and frustrations so that He can deliver us from them all.  Don’t misunderstand, there is nothing wrong with praying when you are in need, but that should not be our only communication with Jesus.  At some level we all realize when we are doing this, and then guilt makes us hesitant to be with Him for fear of rejection.  We can become hesitant to pray because of past wrong motivation in prayer.  So true are the Psalmists words, blessed by God for never rejecting my prayers!  Even my past wrong motivation in prayer does not stop Him living in us, loving us, hearing and answering our prayers and just having joy in the being with us.  With thankful hearts let’s return that joy and love to Him. 

J Todd Hostetler

www.cityonahillTC.org

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