Image: Overlooking the Badlands, South Dakota, August 2018.
Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 1 Kings 9.
“And the Lord said unto
him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplications, that thou hast made before
me” (1 Kings 9:3a).
After he had built the temple, the Lord appeared a second
time to Solomon and declared to him that he had heard his prayers.
All throughout Scripture the Lord is presented as a hearer of
the prayers of his people.
Think of the books of Judges, describing the days of Othniel:
“And when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a
deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son
of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother” (Judges 3:10).
Think of Hannah, crying out for a child in 1 Samuel 1:10: “And
she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.” And
the LORD heard and gave her a son, Samuel, which means, “God hears.”
Think of the early church gathered at the home of Mary the
mother of John Mark in Acts 12, praying for the deliverance of Peter from
prison. God answered that prayer, Peter was miraculously released, and came to
the door of Mary’s house, met by the bewildered Rhoda (see Acts 12:13-17).
Think of the Psalms, like:
Psalm
31:22: “For I said in my haste, I am
cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my
supplications when I cried unto thee.”
Psalm 34:17: “The
righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their
troubles.”
Do you think of your prayers as bouncing off a glass ceiling or a brick
wall, or do you think of them as the cries of an infant, heard and responded to
by a loving Heavenly Father?
The Lord heard Solomon’s prayer. And he will hear our prayers.
Grace and peace, Pastor
Jeff Riddle
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