Prayer: How to hear from God

Prayer: How to hear from God

Posted on May 3, 2018 Updated on May 3, 2018

 

Memorise: “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee” (Ps 39:7)

Read: Psalm 42:3-5

Prayer cannot change God but it can change people, circumstances and turn doubt into trust, fear into faith. Prayer can also move obstacles and turn weakness into strength. As you pray this season, may these possibilities of prayer be your personal experience. Another thing prayer can do is change hopelessness to hope. When you enter God’s presence and pray, if your hope was lost, it would suddenly be replaced.

How is this possible? Each time you pray, you also have the opportunity to hear from God. Many of us see prayer as a one-way traffic, hence we hardly receive what we should in His presence. When you pray, always create time to listen for feedback. Have you ever visited your bosom friend, and you did all the talking without the fellow contributing?

As soon as some say Amen, they are off. They do not even give God the opportunity to respond. He might want to tell you that the problem is not with your wife, or staff but with you.

“And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee” (Ps 39:7). God is the source of hope. Whenever you lose hope on any issue, go to Him for restoration. Prayer is the channel through which hope is restored to you. A brother was involved in a particular business.

Although he earned a living through it, he was however unhappy doing it. He could not tell many people exactly what he was doing. When he met customers and told them that he was a believer, they would ask: ‘If you are a Christian, why are you into the sale of this particular product?’ He was disturbed but remembered he got God’s approval as well as sought counsel from his pastor before entering into it some years before.

At some point, he began to seek God’s face for a change. He took his hopeless situation to God in the place of prayer and told God to bring about a change. He said, “Lord, just as it is a thing of shame to tell people what I do for a living today, give me something to do that I can be proud to tell everyone about”. He kept praying.

Today, what God gave Him to do is so special and appreciated all over the world, that he finds himself hiding it from people so that they do not hero worship him. God moved him from one extreme to another. There is a user of this Devotional who is ashamed of what he or she is doing but feels hopeless about it. Your change has come. Something honorable is replacing the former job. Remember to thank God and testify of it.

Ask God to address the root cause of your secret tears and regrets.