Every Attribute of God is Implied in the Fact that He Hears and Answers Prayer (Part 2) (The Prayer Motivator Devotional #108)

Summary: Our prayer motivator verse for today is Matthew 26:36 which reads: "Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder." <br><br> Our prayer motivator quote for today is from Frank Laubach. He said, "The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says ‘Amen’ and runs away before God has a chance to reply. Listening to God is far more important than giving Him our ideas." <br><br> Our prayer motivator devotional for today is a continuation of our last broadcast titled EVERY ATTRIBUTE OF GOD IS IMPLIED IN THE FACT THAT HE HEARS AND ANSWERS PRAYER from Dr. John R. Rice. You might recall from our last broadcast, that we discussed three qualities or attributes of God. Those are: 1. a prayer-hearing God is a living God; 2. a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God is an all-knowing God; and 3. if God is able to answer prayer, then He has all power in Heaven and earth. Today, we will continue this discussion with three more atrributes or qualities of God. Dr. Rice said... <br><br> Fourth, if God answers prayer and has such infinite wisdom, such almighty power, then He Himself must be the Creator. There could be none other as powerful; there could be none to dispute His right; there could be none other to limit His work or cross His will. Then the God who answers prayer, in the very nature of the case, is the Creator of the heavens and earth. <br><br> Fifth, the God who answers prayer, then, is a miracle-working God. To believe that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, means that one has faith in all that is ever claimed for God. If there is a God who hears and answers prayers, in the sense of the Bible, then of very necessity His work is miraculous, supernatural, not ordinary, but extraordinary; not human, but divine; not limited, but infinite in scope. <br><br> "Does God work miracles today? someone asks. And the answer is, Yes, if He is the God who rewards those that diligently seek Him, if He is still the God who hears and answers prayer, then His ordinary and natural way of working in answering prayer would be by miracles. Every soul saved is a supernatural act, not a natural one. Every time God intervenes and controls nature or changes a plan to make it rain when it otherwise would not have rained, and does it because someone prayed, then that is a miracle. Every time a person gets well in answer to prayer, when otherwise he would not have gotten well, it is a miracle, a divine intervention in natural affairs. As the late Dr. Blanchard, president of Wheaton College, said in one of his books, "If there be a God, He must act like a God." A God works miracles. A God who would cease to work miracles would cease to be a God, in the Bible sense, that is, a personal God who personally hears and answers the prayer of faith. <br><br> Sixth, if God answers prayer then He is a God of infinite love and mercy! God knows none of us deserve to have our prayers answered. We poor sinners deserve only condemnation and forsaking and punishment of death! But God loves sinners. His mercy is boundless. Romans 5:20 says, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." If there is a God who rewards those who diligently seek Him, that is, who hears and answers the cry, the faith, the need of human beings, then God would give His own Son to atone for sin and make it so He could righteously forgive sin and save sinners and keep them out of Hell and make them into His own image and have them forever with Him in Heaven! Ah, when one really believes that God is a prayer-hearing, prayer-answering God, he has the secret to the very heart of God, and he can dimly see and outline all the graces and powers and majesty of the infinite God! A God who hears and answers prayer is a true God. Any God who does not hear and answer prayer has not the power and the grace to create or support the world, or to love and seek and save lost sinners.