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The answer is..."Yes He does!" God hears every prayer that is ever prayed. As a matter of fact there isn't anything that escapes His sight or His ears...
There should be no doubt that God hears every prayer—in the sense that He is aware of the person praying and his or her prayer. The question is: Does God “act” based upon requests made by someone who is not a Christian? It's important at this point to examine....what's a Christian and what's not a Christian? Lets have a look.... There's a spiritually dangerous and hellish lie of a doctrine called eternal security that states, "Once saved...always saved." Well....yes and no. "Yes" in the sense that once you make the decision to give your life over to Christ...nobody has the authority or power to take you away from His grip...and He also will never let you go by His choice. "No" in the sense that if a person thinks they can say some religious, repentant prayer each night before they hit the sack, but intentionally live like hell all the rest of their waking hours, they are fooling nobody but themselves and they are not saved. That is not salvation at all. If anyone is counting on that and think they still have favor with God...they are deceived. I wouldn't be banking on it. As a matter of fact...
You see there is one thing that God will not go against...and that's "Your Will". If your desire is to turn from Him and live your life without Him in it...He will let you go (by your choice). Nobody is perfect and at times a person fails and God understands that but there's a difference between struggling with something in your life and just plain intentional rebellion against God. People think that if they simply "believe" that makes them a christian...not true.
His point is ...you can believe all you want...but until that commitment is there...your belief in God is meaningless. You may go to church as much as you want. You can set there and sing all the hymns and put as much money in that offering plate until you turn blue in the face....or white in the hair...that doesn't make you a Christian...nobody has ever become a Christian by osmosis. There's only one way...making your peace with God, accepting Christ as your saviour...and doing you best to live it. A lot less talk and a whole lot more walk. The Commitment So what is the commitment? It's funny how people will say, "Well I follow the 10 commandments!"....Well congratulations! I'm glad to hear that when it says "Thou shall not kill!"...you are following that one. However Christ introduced a lot more than that. The one about "loving your enemies..and doing good to those who do evil against you." ..those are heavy duty.
The Fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5:22 * love; * joy; * peace; * patience; * kindness; * goodness; * faithfulness; * gentleness; * self-control. (society is in the toliet on this one in my opinion) * bear with one another; * forgive one another; * let the peace of God rule their hearts; * be thankful; * have the Word live in them; * teach and admonish one another; * sing with grace in their hearts. When a person is truly a follower of Christ...these things will be evident. The acts of the sinful nature: Galatians 5:19-20: * sexual immorality, * impurity * debauchery; * idolatry (can be anything that has more importance than God) * witchcraft * hatred * discord * jealousy * fits of rage * selfish ambition * dissensions * factions If these things are prevalent in a person's life...then they can call themselves Christian all they want...but they ain't. Cuz you either "is"...or you "isn't". The Bible clearly exclaims, "Choose this day who you will serve!" To be a Christian means to be "In Christ". However, if a person is struggling with any of those things ...but their heart's desire is to live for God..that's a different matter. I cannot stress that enough! Galatians 5:4 says, "..there are those people who once obeyed the Gospel, but who since have “fallen away from grace” and become erring children of God." Hebrews says this: "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment..." Now as I said (I really wish to reiterate this)...if a person has chosen to serve God but they still struggle in some areas...as long as they are trying...Gods sees that. Those matters are between the person and God...and nobody else. A relationship with God is very simple....it's a matter of an honest heart. He knows when a person is praying out of greed or selfishness. He's well aware of the intention of the person who says a quickie little prayer to cover up what they are doing and believes they are in God's good graces. So that's the deal. So lets answer our original question of, "Does God hear a non-Christian's prayer?" He hears them but does He heed them? That's totally up to the Lord himself. Let's just put it this way...He's not obligated to. Here's a few verses about this... John 9:31: We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD : but the prayer of the upright is his delight. Whenever you see the word "abomination"...you know it can't be good. This whole issue is a very in-depth teaching and there's much more we could say about it but you get my point. I'm not saying that God won't answer a prayer by someone not following Him...that's up to God. I just know is what the Word of God says about it. I think it's really according to the circumstance, but expecting God to honor a prayer for a situation when you have no intentions of ever serving Him....just doesn't make any sense. You might as well go out and pray to a piece of diftwood and hope for the best. Just remember though....God loves you no matter who you are and what you've done. He'll forgive you and welcome you into His family anytime. The choice is yours. |
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