When we pray, many of us often wonder if God is actually listening to us? Does God really listen to my prayers and what I have to say? The definition of the word listen in the dictionary is “to hear something with thoughtful attention“. If we go by this definition then when we pray, what we really want to know is whether God is listening to our prayers with thoughtful attention.

In Psalm 54:2 we see David cry out to the Lord saying “Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.” There are many verses like this in the Psalms where we hear David asking God to hear his prayers. David wanted to make sure that God was listening so He would often start his prayers by asking God to listen to him. This is interesting because David has seen God work in his life and He has seen the Glory of his God but yet when He prayed he seems to be not so sure if God is actually listening to him sometimes.

How often do we feel the same way as David wondering if God is actually listening to us? In our human nature, we often think is He listening to us? One thing is for sure, from the bible, God does indeed listen to our prayers. Following is a list of bible verses that clearly say that. 1 Peter 3:12  “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 1 John 5:15 – “And if we know that he hears us whatever we ask we know that we have what we asked of him.” Jeremiah 29:12-13 “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

So now that we know that God does listen to our prayers the real question is why hasn’t God answered our prayers? The answer is always the same. God’s will. Not everything we pray for is going to be answered according to the way we want. We might pray for something in our own human understanding, thinking that we know what we want, but only God knows what we really need and He can choose what prayers He wants to answer. He is God after all and His will is always greater than our own will for our lives.

The other reason your prayer may not be answered is that you might have some sin in your life that is affecting your relationship with God. Proverbs 28:9 says  “If one turns away his ear from hearing God’s law, even his prayer is an abomination.” This verse is pretty clear that sin in our life is going to hinder our prayer life and God may not want to answer our prayer because of our sin.

So when we pray to God we always want to make sure that we ask for forgiveness for our own sins and ask the holy spirit to guide us in those areas of our life that need help. Romans 8:26-27 says “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” 

Prayer is not a one-way communication where we just ask God for what we want all the time without asking him what He wants to do in our life. Real prayer is asking the holy spirit to guide us and show us areas in our life that are not being lived according to God’s will and asking God for forgiveness. Real prayer always focuses on asking God for guidance in our life rather than focusing on our own needs and wants. The answer to the question “Does God listen to my prayers?” can really be answered by asking the question “Are you listening to God’s will for your life?”