Because of His Great Mercy

Why should God listen to our prayers? Do you ever think about that? You pray. You ask God for help and strength and deliverance and forgiveness… But why should God listen to your prayers?

We’d like to think he should listen to us because we deserve it. “I’ve been trying my hardest… I’ve been doing the best I can…” When you really think about it, however, those are pretty foolish things to say to God. We haven’t really been good, at least not all the time. We haven’t really done our best. In fact, we’ve sinned more than we like to admit.

Why should God listen to our prayers?

Daniel knew. Remember Daniel—the guy who spent a night in a lions’ den? When he prayed to God, he ended his prayer like this: “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy” (Daniel 9:18). If our prayers depended on our righteousness, we’d be in big trouble, because we’re not righteous. What do our prayers depend on? God’s great mercy!

God shouldn’t listen to our prayers, but he does. He listens because Jesus our Savior died on the cross to take all our sins away. Jesus made us into the children of God by the power of baptism and his perfect Word. God in his grace listens to our prayers as eagerly as a loving Father listens to his dear children.

All because of his great mercy.

Pastor Nathan