"I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications."
Psalm 116:1
A Christian man said to his wife, "Sometime I feel like God doesn't even hear my prayers." She quickly said, "That's your problem. You're depending on your feelings and not on faith." He was offended with her words and walked out of the room. A few minutes later, he returned and said to her, "You were exactly right. I have been depending on my feelings and not on faith for a long time. You angered me, because what you said was true. I just got on my knees and asked the Lord to forgive my doubt and unbelief. He heard my prayer."
Every person who knows the Lord in a personal relationship has three abiding gifts of the Spirit at work in his heart. They are faith, hope and love (1 Cor. 13:13). Notice, the psalmist said, "I love the Lord." We love Him in response to His love for us. Love listens, and God is love (1 John 4:8). Hope waits for God to answer prayer. Faith knows that God has heard our voice when we pray. Understand that prayer is a response to the Spirit of grace working in our hearts.
Do you have trouble believing God really hears your prayers? Confess that to Him. He already knows your heart. Ask Him to work in your heart, granting you the abiding gifts of faith, hope and love. Rest in the Lord to do in you what you cannot do for yourself. Trying to have faith, hope and love, simply will not work. "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). The Spirit of God working in us, can lead us to say with confidence, "I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplication."
Prayer: Lord, work in our hearts that we may love You. Grant us faith, hope and love, as abiding gifts of the Holy Spirit. Work in us that we may have confidence, that You hear our prayers, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
