Matthew 7:7-11
Last week we asked the question, “Why do you pray?” we talked about prayer being a command, an invitation and a promise. We pray because Jesus told us to, because our Father wants us to and because the promise is that when we pray God hears us. The greatest promise of prayer is not what happens after the fact it is that when we speak to God He chooses to give us His ear, His heart, His attention and His affection. Jesus said, in John 11:41-42 “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” More than any other reason, we pray, because God hears us. Today we will talk about our second of three questions, “Who are we praying to?” Last week I shared that prayer and love go hand in hand, that God gave us prayer because He loves us and we devote ourselves to prayer because we love Him; this means that prayer is a relationship and for any relationship to work there must be constant communication (pray without ceasing) and there has to be a trust of each other’s worth, role and commitment. This means that the question, “Who do we pray to?” is not answered simply but relationally, how I approach God reveals the depth of our relationship, it reveals if I believe Him to be good, faithful, kind and loving or if I believe Him to be something other than what Jesus has taught us that He is. Prayer is not answered because I pray rightly, it is answered because God loves fully. Today I hope that we will see that we are praying to the God who answers every prayer, who Father’s all of His children and whose response to our prayers can always be summed up in three words, “How much more”.