Does God hear the prayers of an unbeliever?

(music) - We need to start by remembering that God

hear

s everything. He

hear

s the sound of every electron spinning around the nucleus of every atom in the universe. He hears every thought before we think it, the Bible says. But the question really is: Does God listen to the

prayers

of an

unbeliever

with a view to answering them? When my daughter was little, she would sometimes say: Dad, get me a drink of water. I would say I can't hear you. Dad, bring me a drink of water! I can not hear you. Give me a drink of water, please.

Well, here you go. He could hear her, but he couldn't hear her with a view to answering until she asked correctly. Well, the Bible teaches us that we have no basis to believe that God will ever hear our

prayers

. Although He hears everything. He would not listen to answer, unless we came for Jesus, who said of Himself: I am the way, the truth, and the life. And if that weren't enough, he said, and no one comes to the Father except through me, and that includes not only coming in relationship, but coming in prayer, because in the book of Hebrews, we are told that we can approach the presence of God through the veil that is His flesh, only through the blood of Jesus can we approach.

So the only basis we have to believe that God will hear any of our prayers is if we come in the name of Jesus. And in the name of Jesus it is not just a phrase, a tag phrase that we add at the end, it means that we come in his righteousness. We come based on who we are in Him, not because we deserve to have our prayers heard. So the bottom line is that we can give someone assurance that God will answer his prayers only if it comes in and through Jesus, and even then, for those who are in Christ, the Bible gives several conditions for answered prayer.

Therefore, we cannot guarantee to anyone who is not a believer that God will answer their prayers. In fact, there is a verse in Proverbs, Proverbs 15:8 that says that sacrifices, which would have included prayers, the sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, the strongest possible term of hatred there. But the prayers of the upright are their delight. So when the wicked come and bring sacrifices, should they bring sacrifices? Yes. Should they have prayed? Yes. But doing them without a relationship with God, God considers it an abomination, even though they were doing what was outwardly right, it was an abomination if they came, basically, in their own righteousness.

So what this means in real life is for someone who is outside of Christ to come and pray and assume that God will hear them because of their sincerity, or the depth of their need, or whatever, is the greatest possible offense to God. . So I often present this to people in the event that they imagine the most pitiful scenario they can conceive. The kind of situation that makes the most insensitive atheist cry when he finds out about it. Now imagine that person coming before God and begging Him to respond. To make people think, you mean this can break an atheist's heart and God won't be touched?

Wouldn't God answer? Oh, God's heart is definitely moved. But believing that we can gain an audience with God, believing that God must answer us, because we are really sincere in this moment, or we have a temporary humility, or temporarily, I normally don't pray, but Lord, I really need You now, would you answer this prayer? In a sense, God abhors that. On the one hand, his heart is moved. He is a merciful God and listens. But, for anyone to presume that he can come in his own righteousness, and God will answer, is a gospel issue, because it implies, I don't need Jesus, thank you very much.

God sent Your son to give me access to You, oh that was a big mistake in my case. Is there any greater offense to God than the fact that he made a mistake in sending Jesus? To think that I am righteous enough, that I can be pitiful enough, that I can be sincere enough that God will be impressed and hear my prayers, and that Jesus is not necessary? That is why prayers made without Jesus are an abomination to the Lord, because they attack the heart of the gospel. There are unbelieving people who would say: I don't care what you say, I know God answered my prayer.

My son was dying, the doctor said there was no hope, I prayed and cried out to God, and He saved my son's life, and I know God answered my prayers. I don't normally pray, admittedly I'm not a dedicated follower of Jesus, but I know He answered my prayers. I think biblically, the best way to understand this is that God heard the prayers of the Christians who were praying for that child or, in God's providence, that's what He was going to do anyway, and their prayers had no meaning. impact on the situation. because there is nothing in the Bible that we can offer to an

unbeliever

and tell him and give him assurance that God will answer prayer.

There are very few occasions, most notably Cornelius in the New Testament, where people mention and say, look, he was not a believer, and he prayed, and God sent Peter, and he preached the gospel, and he was saved. But when the angel comes to Cornelius, he tells him, your prayers have ascended as a memorial to God. Very unusual phrase, he

does

not say that God has answered your prayers. And how did He respond to prayer? If he did it, to whatever degree we can say he did it, he sent Peter to preach the gospel. Cornelius needed the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, in short, God hears everything. But we cannot guarantee any unbeliever that God will hear his prayers outside of Jesus Christ. But how good God is, that through Jesus he welcomes our prayers, and anyone who comes to Him through Jesus will receive them and promises to listen to us. (music) - Thanks for watching Honest Answers. You can submit your questions via email, Twitter, or in the comments section below. (music) And don't forget to subscribe to find out the answer to next Wednesday's question. (music)