In our text today, we have one of the great prayer promises of scripture. Yet, immediately, we are tempted to make two objections to this promise which make it difficult for us to believe it and then experience it’s power in our lives. One is that we wonder if we can ever get to a place of obedience with God where our heart will no longer condemn us. And the other stems from the fact that we have all experienced a lot of unanswered prayer in our past. So, the fact that God has not always answered our prayers in the past undermines our confidence that he will answer them in the present (or future). This, then, becomes our “truth,” as opposed to this truth about prayer that we find here in God’s word. 

This verse suggests that it is, in fact, possible to have confidence before God despite our struggle to ever feel “good enough.” In day two of this week, we saw that you don’t have to live a perfect life in order to have what God calls a “perfect” heart. Rather, that refers to a life of wholehearted surrender; a life set on trust, love and obedience. And because we do not do this perfectly, God has told us to confess our sins and receive his restoration! 

If we walk this way, our confidence in prayer can’t help but be strengthened, as we grow closer to him and our desires line up more with his. When we know we are right before him, we are conscious that nothing hinders our prayers (Psalm 66:18) and our desire to pray grows. Believer, let us make it the goal of our prayer life that, as we seek to follow him with a confident heart, we will then see in our lives more and more answered prayer! Let us confidently expect God to stand behind his promise!