It’s not uncommon for people to think that God doesn’t hear their prayers. After all, there are now more than eight billion people occupying this planet of ours. We’re not all praying at the same time, but we’re all living; and God does much more than just listen to our prayers. He somehow keeps track of what’s going on in each and every one of our lives, not just those who confess Him as Lord.
This may seem impossible for us, as there is no way that we could come close to doing the same. We have enough trouble keeping track of our own lives, plus the important things going on in the lives of those around us. Because of those limitations, we can’t imagine just how God could keep track of everything that’s going on in everyone’s life. To our finite minds, that seems impossible, even with all the supercomputers of the world working on the task.
But God is not limited by the same things that we are. After all, He isn’t human; He’s God. We really don’t have a clear grasp on His limits, if He has any. Trying to measure His capability by looking at our own is a mistake, as there is no real comparison. Our problem comes in that we try to understand God through our own limits.
As a simple example of God’s limitless ability to know everything there is to know about us, Jesus said, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Luke 12:7). While this verse doesn’t specifically say that God is the one who has numbered those hairs, the implication is clear. As Jesus was talking about the people’s value to God. He makes this clear in the previous verses, where He talks about the sparrows not being forgotten before God (Luke 12:6).
God’s Limitless Ability
As hard as it is for us to get our minds around, we must accept that God has no limits. That’s part of what makes Him God and not us. False religions tend to model their gods after their own abilities and limitations; but Jehovah God, the God of the Bible, is not like that. He is not an invention of man’s mind, but rather the creator of the universe, who first revealed Himself to the first man, Adam, and has continued revealing Himself to godly men throughout history.
There are three words which are used to describe God’s limitlessness; that is, He is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. Specifically, these words mean:
- Omnipresent – He is capable of being in all places at the same time; not limited by space and time.
- Omnipotent – He is all powerful, as one would expect from a being powerful enough to create the universe we live in.
- Omniscient – He is all-knowing.
On top of this, theologians agree that God lives outside of time, even though there is no specific verse that we can point to which actually says that. On the other hand, the Bible does say that God existed long before we did and it is safe to say that He will continue to exist long after we are gone. He doesn’t actually need us, although we do need Him.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations. – Jeremiah 1:5
With God not being limited by time, it is possible for Him to do many things we can’t even imagine. If, for example, He wanted to move forward and backwards in what we call time, impacting events in both our past and our future at the same time,” I’m sure He could. He could also put time on “pause” from His perspective, so that He could do something He needed to, like listen to a lot of people’s prayers at the same time. I’m not saying that He actually does this, just that He could, if He so desired.
I actually don’t think that is necessary for Him to do, because of His omniscience. God already knows everything, without us bothering to tell Him or ask for anything. Jesus made this clear to us, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew.
And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. – Matthew 6:8
With God already knowing what we need, one could easily ask why we should bother praying at all. But if you think about it, while we are told in the Bible to pray, there is nothing in the Bible which says that our prayers change God’s mind. Rather, a lot of why we are to pray is to put ourselves in a position of receiving from God. Asking for things, what is known as the prayer of supplication, is the shortest part of the Lord’s Prayer, consisting of only seven words.
Give us this day our daily bread. – Matthew 6:11
In comparison to that, the biggest part of the Lord’s prayer is focused on praise and intercession. That’s where God wants us to focus our attention, because it builds our relationship with Him, as well as putting us into agreement with His will here on the earth.
With our prayer focus being on what we need from God and God already knowing what it is that we need, the job of keeping track of what we have prayed becomes much easier. All He really needs to do is listen to see if we are praying in accordance with what He already knows and how He already intends to deal with it. He does not need to keep track of our list of requests, as if He is required to meet every one of those desires.
Please note that the idea that God will give us anything we ask for is a misinterpretation of Scripture, even though it is widely accepted by both those within the church and without. To say that He will give us anything we want, is to say that He will violate His own Word to do so. God won’t ever do that. So, when we see a verse which states something like Solomon did in Psalm 37, we must be sure to interpret it correctly.
Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 37:4
This verse doesn’t say that God will give you whatever you desire in your heart, no matter how many people try and make it say that. First, it starts out with a requirement; that of delighting yourself in the Lord. That means that our pleasure and our joy come from Him and our relationship with Him. If that is truly the case, we wouldn’t even think of asking for something that goes against His will.
As a man, I could say that a “desire of my heart” is to have a harem of beautiful women, waiting to do my will. But that is not God’s will and in fact goes against God’s will. Clearly, God will not give me that desire, no matter how much I quote Psalm 37:4 to Him. The same could be said for desiring a fancy sports car, so that I could show it off and impress everyone with how blessed I am. That would be building my pride, which God calls the first of sins. Rather, that verse is telling me that if I delight myself in the Lord, He will place the desires in my heart that I should have, which will be beneficial to me, both spiritually and naturally.
So, Just What is Pray About Then?
If we can break ourselves away from the idea that prayer is about asking God for things that we desire, then we need a new model for prayer. Just what is it that we are to pray about and why are we praying?
People say all the time that “prayer is communicating with God.” We can connect that with something I mentioned above, that the largest parts of the Lord’s Prayer are first, praising God and secondly intercession. So, if we pray in alignment with the Lord’s Prayer, rather than giving God our shopping list, then what we see is that true prayer, as Jesus taught it, is about praising God and talking about His will being accomplished here on earth.
When we pray that way, we aren’t giving God a list of things that He has to remember to do for us. Rather, we are putting ourselves in alignment with what God is already doing. I can guarantee you, He has no more problem remembering that, than we do… and probably a whole lot less problem with it.
Let me add one more thing here… since God already knows what we need and is interested in taking care of us, He is already working on blessing us with those things. The problem in them getting to us doesn’t reside with God, it resides with us. Often God is waiting for us to get to the place in our growth where He can give us that blessing, without it causing harm to ourselves or others.
Take the idea of asking God for a spouse, as an example. God already knows that we need a spouse, because He created us with that need. I also personally believe that He has an ideal person for each of us. But He also knows that if He brings the two of us together too soon, we will hurt each other, possibly even destroy each other, rather than being a blessing to each other. So, in that case, He could very easily be waiting until we are at a point where we are ready for that relationship.
Does God Keep Records?
There’s a phrase that we find in the Old Testament, which makes it sound as if God sometimes forgets. That phrase is “God remembered.” It only shows up four times; but that’s enough to cause some confusion. For example, God remembered Noah and everyone with him in the ark in Genesis, chapter 8. To our way of talking, that sounds like God got busy with something else, while Noah, his family, and the animals were floating around in the ark. But that’s not a correct understanding, because the use of the word “remembered” has changed through time.
If we are to take that phrase in context, we might be better off translating it as “God had Noah and all those with him in the forefront of His memory, so decided it was time to take action on their behalf. Using the word that way fits with the other three places where it says that “God remembered” in the Old Testament.
But even with a perfect memory, there are a few important things that God writes down. The first of these is the Bible. We know from First Timothy 3:16-17 that the men who wrote the various books of the Bible were inspired by God to write it. Based on that, we can say that God wrote those books. But He didn’t do that for Himself, to remind Himself of what He had said, He did it for us, to remind us of what He has said.
Another very important thing that God has written down is the Lamb’s Book of Life. This is a listing of all who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, allowing them to come into covenant with God the Father. This book is mentioned in the book of Revelations as being used to allow or deny access into the New Jerusalem, the City of God.
But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. – Revelations 21:27
This is not something written to remind God of anything, but rather to be used as evidence; we could even call it “legal evidence.” It is the ultimate evidence of those who have accepted Jesus. Should someone try to gain access to heaven, without having already taken that step, this book would be used to prove that they were attempting to gain access, without the right to do so.
In a similar way, people talk about the acts of our lives or our sins being written down. This concept comes more from the various verses which talk about God blotting out our sins, than there being a verse which says that He records them. God is not interested in keeping track of our wrongs; He has made it clear that He is interested in blotting them out. That’s what Jesus came and died on the cross to do.
But even if we were to find a verse which says that God had our sins recorded in books, that would not mean that He did so to hold it as evidence against us. While He could do that, and we would probably do so, He would rather use the blood of Jesus to wash those sins out of the book, making the pages blank and clean.