Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer shows a sincere and hurting heart, and God hears that honesty. Feeling that every door opens only to close again is deeply discouraging, and it is right to bring that confusion and need directly to Him.
Scripture teaches that effective prayer rests on relationship. To be able to come to God and truly say Father means you have come to Him through Jesus Christ as your Savior. Without that relationship prayer has no foundation. There is one prayer He always hears from someone who has not yet come to Him in that way, and it is simply, God be merciful to me, a sinner. That prayer of repentance and faith in Jesus establishes the relationship and opens the way for communion with Him. If you have not settled that, that is the place to begin. If you have, then you can come with confidence, not because you have earned anything, but because you are His child.
It also helps to understand what prayer is for. Prayer was never meant to be a way to make God do what we want. Its purpose is to see God's will done. In that sense prayer moves in a kind of circle. It begins with God and His purposes. He makes His desires known to our hearts, we then speak them back to Him in prayer, and He accomplishes them. When we pray only from our own desires, asking only for what we want to consume on ourselves, we ask amiss. Jesus taught us to ask and seek and knock with the promise that those who ask will receive, but that asking is meant to be shaped by seeking His will.
Because God is your Father, His heart toward you is love, and His desire for you is what is truly best. That is why you do not need to be afraid of coming to Him with an open heart, even when you do not understand His ways. A closed door is not necessarily a sign that He is against you or that He has stopped listening. Often it is His love protecting you from what is not best, or redirecting you toward what is. Prayer opens the door for God to do what He has wanted to do all along, yet He will not force His way past your will. Through prayer you invite Him to work, and through prayer you learn submission to His will. That is one of the greatest things prayer changes. More than changing circumstances, prayer changes us.
God also does not always answer the moment we pray. There is often a time between the prayer and the answer in which faith is tested and patience is learned. The length of a prayer or the amount of time spent on your knees does not make it valid. The prayers recorded in the Bible are often very short. What matters is a fervent, honest heart. A shallow, careless prayer accomplishes little, but the sincere, heartfelt prayer of a person made right with God through Christ has great power.
So continue to lay your heart bare before Him. Worship Him for who He is, tell Him your needs plainly, and also ask Him to show you His ways and teach you His paths. That is a prayer He loves to answer. And while you pray, also act responsibly with what is before you. Prayer was never meant to take the place of doing what you can do. Pray and then take the wise, faithful steps that are in your hands to take, trusting Him with the results.
May the Lord lift up your soul to Himself as you trust in Him. May He forgive what needs forgiving through the blood of Jesus, cleanse your heart, and make His will clear to you. May He show you whether a door is closed because He is protecting you or because He is leading you another way, and give you strength to wait and to follow. He is strong and mighty, He is near to those who call on Him in truth, and He will not withhold what is good from His children.
Scripture teaches that effective prayer rests on relationship. To be able to come to God and truly say Father means you have come to Him through Jesus Christ as your Savior. Without that relationship prayer has no foundation. There is one prayer He always hears from someone who has not yet come to Him in that way, and it is simply, God be merciful to me, a sinner. That prayer of repentance and faith in Jesus establishes the relationship and opens the way for communion with Him. If you have not settled that, that is the place to begin. If you have, then you can come with confidence, not because you have earned anything, but because you are His child.
It also helps to understand what prayer is for. Prayer was never meant to be a way to make God do what we want. Its purpose is to see God's will done. In that sense prayer moves in a kind of circle. It begins with God and His purposes. He makes His desires known to our hearts, we then speak them back to Him in prayer, and He accomplishes them. When we pray only from our own desires, asking only for what we want to consume on ourselves, we ask amiss. Jesus taught us to ask and seek and knock with the promise that those who ask will receive, but that asking is meant to be shaped by seeking His will.
Because God is your Father, His heart toward you is love, and His desire for you is what is truly best. That is why you do not need to be afraid of coming to Him with an open heart, even when you do not understand His ways. A closed door is not necessarily a sign that He is against you or that He has stopped listening. Often it is His love protecting you from what is not best, or redirecting you toward what is. Prayer opens the door for God to do what He has wanted to do all along, yet He will not force His way past your will. Through prayer you invite Him to work, and through prayer you learn submission to His will. That is one of the greatest things prayer changes. More than changing circumstances, prayer changes us.
God also does not always answer the moment we pray. There is often a time between the prayer and the answer in which faith is tested and patience is learned. The length of a prayer or the amount of time spent on your knees does not make it valid. The prayers recorded in the Bible are often very short. What matters is a fervent, honest heart. A shallow, careless prayer accomplishes little, but the sincere, heartfelt prayer of a person made right with God through Christ has great power.
So continue to lay your heart bare before Him. Worship Him for who He is, tell Him your needs plainly, and also ask Him to show you His ways and teach you His paths. That is a prayer He loves to answer. And while you pray, also act responsibly with what is before you. Prayer was never meant to take the place of doing what you can do. Pray and then take the wise, faithful steps that are in your hands to take, trusting Him with the results.
May the Lord lift up your soul to Himself as you trust in Him. May He forgive what needs forgiving through the blood of Jesus, cleanse your heart, and make His will clear to you. May He show you whether a door is closed because He is protecting you or because He is leading you another way, and give you strength to wait and to follow. He is strong and mighty, He is near to those who call on Him in truth, and He will not withhold what is good from His children.
