Monday 3 Dec 2012

Monday Reading: Acts 10:30-35

Key Verse: Acts 10:31
31  And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.

Devotion:
Isn’t it amazing that God hears our prayers no matter what state we are in? If we lift up our prayers in belief then he will listen and He has also promised to answer our prayers! Cornelius was learning about God and he lifted up his prayers to the God of the Israelites in the earnest hope that God would hear Him and allow Him to draw near. God answered his prayer by telling him to get in touch with Simon Peter from whom he would be able to learn a lot more about God.

Have you ever been searching for something? Of course you have! But how did you go about looking? If you really wanted to find what you are looking for then your searching would be thorough. If you did not really want to find it then you may well make a half-hearted attempt at searching. That is where we have a problem, because if we go out to look for God in a half-hearted way, we will very quickly find that God knows exactly what we are up to – because He does hear our prayers! But if we open our hearts to Him and seek Him properly, then we will get a proper response from God!

God may not answer our prayers in the way we think they should be answered because he actually knows what is better for us than we do; so instead, God is going to answer our prayers in a way in which we may not even have thought of but a manner in which God will get the glory and we will get the help we need. God answers prayers to fulfil a need not a want; just because we may want various things in our lives does not mean that we are going to get things answered in the way we want.

I want sweets because I have a sweet tooth. I know they are not good for me so I try not to take too many. I don’t ask God for sweets because that would not be right! I know this seems like a silly example to show, but we do have some pretty silly requests that we make to God at times. We need to think about how we talk to God because He is listening always!

Points to Ponder:
What do you ask God for?

What does God give you?