The Lord is Near

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Psalm 145:18 The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. (NV)

Over the years I have overheard various individuals ask, “Is the Lord really listening when I call out to Him in prayer?” The first part of this verse says that He is near to all who call on Him, so we should call out to Him in expectation. I cannot help but think about Psalm 66:18 when I make this remark.
Psalm 66:18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; (NIV)
When we have active sin in our lives, where we sin intentionally, we block God from listening to our cries out to Him. When we have “cherished” sin in our lives we are telling God that we love the sin more than we love Him.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
God will NOT take the back seat in your life. He, above all, knows what is best for us and wants to bless us with answers to our prayers. We must remember that when we pray, we really want His answers, not our answers.
Another thing is sometimes when God answers our prayers it is not the answer we were looking for. What happened? Often times God has deeper more meaningful answers to our prayers than we expect. As hard as it may seem to accept this, sometimes we need to ask God to conform us to His answer, to retrain our expectations to what He truly desires. At times, that can be difficult.
Key Thought: We can expect to know that God is truly near us when we call out to Him. It is up to us to get involved in how He wants to answer us. We need to call out to Him in faithfulness as well. We can trust Him for His answer.
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, purge my heart from all unrighteousness and purify my spirit as I call out to You. Reveal to me any sin that is blocking our fellowship that I may be in tune with You and Your purposes for my life. Help my prayer to not be selfish but to look to You in Your answer for me. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN!!!
Have a Blessed and Wonderful Day!!!
In Christ,
Ted Wilkins
© 2026 Ted Wilkins

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