Gospel Reflections #44: Will God Answer Our Prayer because We are Good Enough

"John 11:41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me."

This is Jesus' prayer just before Lazarus' resurrection. Jesus did not ask for power, nor did he pray for God to hear his request for resurrection. Jesus thanked the Father that His petition had already been heard.

Our God hears our prayers and even our un-prayerful voices. THERE IS NOTHING TO WEIGH IN THE BALANCE TO HAVE OUR PRAYER HEARD. It does not matter how good a believer we are. Nor is keeping the law or the rules or saying the Lord's Prayer a condition for having our prayers heard.

What we need is intimacy with God. Do you have a relationship with God like that of a father and child or a best friend?

You don't need any qualifications or anything to build this relationship. All you need is to believe in and accept God. That is the only way to connect directly with God! God is not a robot that fulfills our wishes and hopes, but fulfills needs that we don't even realize we have.

We can tell God what we really feel, and He will listen to us and accept us as we are.

Our deepest desire is for God to accept us as we are, to understand us, to empathize with us, to accept our weaknesses, our ugliness, and our imperfections, and to embrace us. God is always receptive to those feelings of ours.

So instead of focusing on what form our prayers take, we should focus on what kind of One (God) we are praying to.

God accepts all of us before we even ask. And this is what God wants. Because God is love!

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This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San, a devoted student of the Bible who passionately embraces the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on the Gospels as a way to reach out to others and spread the message of Jesus. We're sharing her message here so that you too can experience the joy that comes from the Gospel that has filled her heart.