Will God listen to my prayer?

Does God really listen to us when we call out to him?  

It doesn't matter whether you practice faith or not, the act of coming to God with a sincere prayer, causes Him to act and do something.  He loves us and will help us if we are first willing to come to Him.  When we take this first step it shows God we have at least an ounce of faith (confident belief) in Him.  It says in the bible, faith as small as a mustard seed will move mountains.  I believe this is what God is talking about here; faith no matter how small means such a lot to God and is very powerful!  If faith as small as this can cause God to move imagine what big faith can do!

I recently read a book called 'Beautiful' by Katie Piper (the girl who had acid thrown at her face in 2007), here is a quote from her book: "For the first time in my life I prayed to God I'd never believed in: please help me, give me strength, show me a way through this. But even then I'd decided I was going kill myself - take an overdose or throw myself out of a car. But then all of a sudden the weirdest feeling crept over me. It felt like a warm hug as though I was filled with light. I heard a voice say: everything is gonna be OK. You're journey's just begun & you'll get through this. May be God answered me". 

Also very recently, we had a charity called Teen Challenge visit our church, the guys helped by the charity all had terrible issues of rejection, addiction and drug abuse.  One girl came from a family of drug users, she also did drugs because it was the norm.  She got herself into trouble many times, eventually losing everything she had, including her home, family, friends and possessions.   In her desperate need, she prayed for the first time; "please help me, get me out of this God, please do something".  A few weeks later someone invited her to church, but she very skeptical about it, however through this she then got introduced to the Teen Challenge programme.  She was able to go into rehab and is now completely free of all addictions; she has her life back again.  A quote from her: "God heard my prayer and helped me get in touch with people that could help rescue me".

On a personal note, I have prayed for 2 years now for God to provide a job for me to start this Autumn.  I was offered the perfect job only a few weeks ago, exactly at the right time, exactly in the right line of work when I needed it.

There are many other examples of God acting when we pray.  Two of the examples above are of people who had never prayed in their life before, but it still caused God to move and do something and help them in their circumstances.   With confidence we can call upon Him because the God of the bible is a prayer-hearing God!

It's never too late to pray, even if you haven't before.  You don't need to be a perfect person, we can come as we are!  We live in a very non-spiritual society today but it's better not to leave it so late in the day that when we pray, we are either in great distress or on our death beds.  God wants us to speak with Him when times are good too.  For those that pray regularly if hard times hit, you can guarantee God has already worked out your help - don't you just love that.

Lv Caroline xx

Bible Verses:
Psalm 18 v 6 - In my distress I cried to the Lord for his help, and he heard me from heaven.
Ex 22 v 23  - When they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. 
Psalm 34v 8 -  I call out to the LORD, and he answers me.
Psalm 31 v 22 - In my alarm I said, "I am cut off from your sight!" Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.
Psalm 50v15 - Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.
Psalm 66v 19 - God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.
Psalm 118 v 5 - When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD; he brought me into a spacious place.