When Prayer Is Answered

To be able see prayer being answered is one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. To see God listen to my cry and my plea is a beautiful thing indeed.
Yet at the same time, it is also profoundly confronting. At the start of this year I asked God to change and shape my life in a way that would make me more like Christ. And He has done exactly that. Over the past few months, my life has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows. But to see the Creator of the universe at work in all of that is, for the lack of a better word, mind-blowing. To be able to cry out to the LORD, the living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and have a personal response given is life changing.

When I was back at uni, one of my mates was giving a talk and he said this:
Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Admittedly, I failed to this and managed to wreck myself. But God is good and, by His grace, I have been able to do that in the time since. I realise that I had managed to become comfortable with where I was at in my Christian life. In that comfort, I took being a leader at youth group for granted and the great Deciever tempted me to lust after what I could not have. Ignoring what I knew to be right and true, I willingly walked into sin. I have repented and been forgiven by those whom I sinned against.

In all of this I have learnt three things:
1. Prayer gets answered.
Never doubt that God won’t hear you. 1 John 5:14 reads, And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. We have a God who listens! How great is that! More than that, we can have confidence that He will answer if we pray according to His will. So be constant in prayer that He may use us for His glorious will.
2. Check yourself…
I can’t say this enough. Check your life and doctrine closely so that you do not fall into sin. Guard your heart from the schemes of Satan with the Word of God for it is what gives us life.
3. …before you wreck yourself.
1 John 2:1 reads, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. When you do end up wrecking yourself in sin, be rest assured that you have hope beyond what is currently happening. No matter the consequences interpersonally, there is always redemption on offer if we confess our sins to the Father. Despite all the sin that I have done, I know that I am justified by grace and there is life eternal in Christ.
To Him be the glory forever and ever.

Amen.