The Prayers that God Can Answer

True Mother Kang Hyun Shil

The Prayers that God Can Answer, March 13, 2017

Bible reading: Matthew 5:23-24 (KJV)

23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Today I would like to explain how to offer a prayer so that God may give an answer.

As we lead our life of faith there are times when we struggle over certain issues and also when we are not able to communicate freely with God. The reason is that there is some problem. When there is nothing, no problem, no issues between us and God, when everything is clear between us and God, we are able to receive God into ourselves and we are able to go into God.

We would all like to go into that kind of state; of course we want God to forgive our sins but we often find it difficult to forgive those who have sinned against us. So first, we need to have a heart that is able to forgive the sins against us. We have all sinned, in fact our sins are like a mountain, we have sinned a great deal; but we have very little ability to forgive those who have sinned against us. God is able to forgive our sins when we forgive the sins of others, He is able to answer our prayers and hear our prayers when we forgive the sins of others. So as we go with this life of faith we need to develop the ability to forgive those who have sinned against us.

Someone asked Jesus, “How often do I need to forgive someone who has sinned against me? “ Jesus reply was not, ”Forgive him once or twice,” but he said, “You should forgive him 7 times 70,” so we need to forgive those who sinned against us quite often.

When we pray, what kind of prayer do we need to offer that God can answer? We need to pray a prayer based on our having forgiven the sins of others against us.

So this morning let us remember that we need to forgive those who sin against us as Jesus said, ‘at least 7 times 70’. That is how we can offer prayers that God will be able to answer.

In Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus says: if you come to offer a gift to God at the altar, as you offer it, you might remember that you have sinned against someone or someone has sinned against you. Then, before you make that offering, first of all you need to leave that offering there and if there is anything on your conscience, go to that person and clear all that up, bring harmony between yourself and that person, then come back and offer the gift.

Even between husbands and wives, there are many cases where the lack of reconciliation can lead to a break in the relationship and divorce might come as a result.

This morning let us reflect about whether there is anything between us and God, and see if there is any huge sin that we may have committed that is blocking our communication with God; if so let us work to receive forgiveness for that.

In the world there are many parents and children who do not communicate with each other; in fact they are completely estranged and they live their lives without any contact, or any parent child relationship. Even if such people were to pray all night, fast and offer all kinds of sincerity and dedication conditions, God would not be able to receive those prayers.

A person in that position needs to leave their gift before the altar and go to that person – to the parent or to the child- to be forgiven and forgive and then pray to God. We need to forgive and be forgiven; first forgive those who have sinned against us and then receive their forgiveness, so we can be in the position to pray to God with nothing between us and God.

We need to live our lives in such a way that we can have a very wide pipe of communication between ourselves and God. Then in our interpersonal relationships with our spouse, with our parents, our children, our siblings, or with our friends, we need develop that large pipe of communication so that we can go to God freely. Then we can pray with the idea that our prayers have already been answered, that as we pray they are already answered.

We can hope that you will feel relieved this morning that your heart will be at ease; if you pray as I describe you will have your heart at ease.

When we live our lives with the confidence and conviction that our sins have been forgiven, we can have tremendous energy; we can live in God, we can live in Jesus, we can live in True Father, and we can accomplish great things.

The Bible also says that when we pray we should not just put together meaningless words that just stream together as some kind of ritual. If we pray a long time it does not mean that God wants to hear that prayer; He will listen according to our attitude and the kind of heart we have in our prayer. This is what is important!

When we have a truly sincere attitude, a sincere heart, we can accomplish the ideal of oneness with God and we can have God hear our prayer and answer them. When we call on the name of the Lord, the Lord will come to us; when we pray with Father’s heart, we will truly be able to communicate with Father. So let’s have that heart this morning.

In the Bible we read about the prayer of the tax collector; he offered a prayer that God could truly answer. The tax collector did not try to even come near to God but he stayed far away from God; he prayed a very humble prayer and Jesus praised him. The tax collector prayed to God asking Him to forgive his sins; he confessed his sins to God. Jesus said that God would be with that person.

Jesus contrasted the tax collector’s prayer with the prayer of the Pharisee who went to God and said, “I have done everything right, I have led a faultless life, I have done my tithing, I never violated the Sabbath and I have followed all of your laws.” Jesus said that God will not be able to hear the prayer of such a person.

It is very important that we always come before God and pray with a humble heart, that we pray for forgiveness for our sins, and that we always confess our sins to God. That is when God can come to us, be with us and answer our prayers.

When we pray in that way, God can come to us, be with us and answer our prayers; then we can fight this difficult world and gain victory.

This morning I deeply recognize that God is our Father, that He comes to us, He lives in us, He calls us His son or His daughter and He will always be with us. Let us know that whatever we desire has already been given to us, that our prayers have already been answered, that we can fight evil in the world with this conviction, and gain victory.

Thank you very much