Lately, much has been said and written about the meaning of faith healing and prayer services during which exceptional and noteworthy answers to prayer occur, as in miracles and healings. We must note that here also, that which is unique and eye catching dominates our attention. This particular and peculiar hearing of prayer gains all the attention and is sometimes used as a deproof that prayer is genuine.

Whenever that striking and direct answer to prayer is absent, many assume that there was also a shortfall in the prayer. In this manner, the exceptional hearing of prayer becomes, subconsciously perhaps, the norm. We need to see how God answers prayer today, also when no exceptional or striking miracles or healing occur in answer to that prayer.

The Gift of Prayer⤒🔗

God gave us prayer to communicate with him. Through prayer, we have communion with the holy and living God. This already makes prayer an astounding gift, which we often take for granted. In Calvin’s words, we may through prayer enter the holiness of the heavens to speak with God about his promises.

In this manner, we read in the Psalms how time and again, the poets approach God, appealing to him and trusting him in the hard times of their lives, on the basis of his gracious promises.

Isn’t it a great miracle that we receive the invitation to pray to God from God himself? We are sinners who ourselves broke the bond and contact with God. Yet, that same God against whom we sinned gives us the opportunity to pray to him in all circumstances of our lives, to find a refuge in him. It is amazing that we may pray. It is a witness to God’s goodness and mercy that we may approach him and may send our prayers up to him. He invites us to pray to him and, as a merciful God, he seeks contact with lost sinners.

Once we understand that, we are only able to approach God with the attitude described in the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 45, that “we must thoroughly know our need and misery so that we may humble ourselves before God.” Then we will come to God in humbleness, because we are totally convinced that in the light of his greatness and majesty, we are small and sinful people who ourselves are the cause of the disruption of the contact with God.

Prayer is an undeserved gift from God, a gift which shows us who God is, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He seeks lost people and calls them.

Fellowship in Prayer←⤒🔗

Whereas there are various aspects that belong to prayer and prayer life, fellowship with the Lord is not always seen as an intrinsic element of prayer. We live in a time in which we always look for a result. Everything needs to have purpose and effect in order to be of importance. We can also look at prayer in this manner: We must be able to measure the value and result of prayer in order to be convinced that prayer makes sense and is beneficial for us. This attitude is however not applicable to prayer. Prayer is given to us in order to exercise fellowship with the Lord. In Psalm 25:14 we read, “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.” There is in the life of the believer a trusting fellowship with the Lord. In our communication with him, we may speak about anything, we may share everything with him, and we may hear his voice in his Word. Fellowship with the Lord brings joy to our hearts; in our relationship with God, we may experience something of the joy of salvation. Are not those moments and times when we in prayer may experience fellowship with God wonderful? Isn’t the mystery of life as a Christian defined through prayer, through a relationship with the Lord. By focusing our attention on the kind of prayer that renders spectacular results such as healings and miracles, we stand to draw away our attention from the mystery of a Christian who finds his joy in the encounter with God in the inner room. The hidden fellowship with the Lord in the inner room gives living joy and living strength in the life of every day, also when that everyday life is one of sickness and trouble. Prayer itself is a fountain of joy and comfort for a Christian, out of which the Christian may draw from the Fountain of Life, the Lord Jesus, and may drink from the living water drawn from the wells of salvation.

Answers to Prayer←⤒🔗

We often experience unanswered prayers. More than once, prayers were sent up in definite, specific circumstances with specific needs and requests that were not met, because the Lord is leading us on a different path. However, isn’t it, to put it mildly, one-sided, to look only at those situations? Are there not a multitude of prayers that are heard and answered? Moreover, there are promises in the Word of God that he will hear our prayers. The Lord honours those promises, also today. When we are in spiritual need, the Lord hears whenever we call upon him. Whoever turns to God to receive his grace will not be turned away. The words of the Lord Jesus in Luke 11:13 show us that the Lord will always hear the prayer to receive the Holy Spirit: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Connected to this, we remember the words: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). Has anyone who needed grace ever turned to God and been turned away by him? Whenever we pray for the Holy Spirit, whenever we pray for grace, the Lord hears and shows us his grace. Specifically in prayer, we are granted the privilege of claiming God’s promises.

This is a wonderful encouragement for all who seek the Lord and struggle with doubts as to whether God will actually listen to the prayer of a miserable sinner. The tax collector asked for mercy when he was in the temple, and he received grace. God dispenses his grace through grace; else, it would not be grace anymore.

Let us never forget that the Lord hears innumerable prayers. In our everyday life, this repeatedly manifests itself. When we pray to the Lord, it is not only about our spiritual needs, but also about our daily physical needs. We daily pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and the Lord supplies us with what we need. We experience this as very normal, but, do we not also see in this that the Lord hears prayer? We ask for strength to do our work and for health to be able to work. How often has the Lord not heard this prayer and granted us health and strength? We ask God for his protecting hand when we venture out on the highways and we are kept safe. Do we thank him for hearing all our prayers? Is it not a sign of our becoming like the world when we isolate these things from actual answers to prayer?

God’s Grace Is an Answer←⤒🔗

Miraculous healings and wonders can be answers to prayer and can lead to honouring and glorifying God. We see examples in Scripture. For now, I will not go any further in the discussion as to how we are to view these things. Let us not see it any less of an answer to prayer, which also honours God, when we, comforted, bear our cross and receive the strength to continue on the path of life that the Lord gives us. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 we read that the apostle Paul prayed to the Lord that he might remove the thorn from his flesh. The Lord did not, but he did answer the prayer with the words, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

There are so many examples of prayers being answered in this manner, examples that do not make the papers, but that are experienced as wonders of his grace. In those instances, you are impressed with the magnitude of the grace the Lord grants to bear a serious ailment, and the strength the Lord grants to walk a difficult, hard path. That is not less to his honour, when one may become a witness of God’s grace that is enough to bear the cross. That grace is also sufficient, because the Lord, at the approach of death, gives complete salvation.

That might then be the kind of hearing of prayer that we do not consider especially notable, but in the fellowship of a Christian congregation it is repeatedly experienced. We must not, in the day of small things, or what in our eyes appear to be small things, despise them!