God is Near in Prayer

“For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call on Him?” ¹

Moses, the leader of the recently-enslaved nation of Israel, asked the Israelites this rhetorical question, a question that held an immense truth they needed to know as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. This question holds the same essential truth for God’s people today as we live in the kingdom of His Son.

The great truth is this: our God, the LORD, Yahweh, the Maker of heaven and earth,² is near whenever His people call on Him.

The Israelites already knew this to be true. They had seen firsthand how God came near when they were in slavery. God heard their cry for rescue, and He acted to save His people in accordance with the promises He had already made to their ancestors.³ Through a series of supernatural judgments on unbelieving Egypt,⁴ God had brought His people out of slavery⁵ and was bringing them to the land God had promised Abraham his family would have.⁶ Our God hears the cries of His people.

The descendents of these Israelites would learn this to be true, too.

Hannah, a woman mocked and belittled for her years of infertility, pleaded to God in deep distress and weeping to grant her a son.⁷ She became the mother of Samuel, the final judge and a prophet, who anointed the first two kings of Israel.⁸ Our God hears the cries of His people.

Hezekiah, one of the kings of Judah, prayed to the LORD for rescue from the Assyrian army threatening Jerusalem.⁹ “That night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians,”¹⁰ and Jerusalem was saved. Our God hears the cries of His people.

Peter, one of the twelve apostles, sat rotting in prison, awaiting his trial and likely death, “but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”¹¹ The night before his trial, an angel appeared in the cell with Peter, his chains fell off his wrists, and he followed the angel out past the guards and through gates that opened of their own accord, free from prison.¹² Our God hears the cries of His people.

Jesus, the Son of God, prayed in the garden of Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed. In anguish, with sweat like drops of blood falling to the ground, He prayed that the cup would pass from Him, yet He also prayed for His Father’s will to be done. An angel from heaven appeared and strengthened our Savior for what was to come.¹³ The cup did not pass, but our God heard the cry of His Son.

Thank God His will was done and that the cup did not pass, for the cup Jesus took brought us peace with God. Jesus’ wounds brought healing to us,¹⁴ to all who call upon His name in faith.¹⁵ In His love and mercy, God sent His Son to become sin for us and to die in our place, to take the death penalty for our sins, accomplishing what we never could, so that we might become the righteousness of God, necessary for new life with Him.¹⁶ Our God knew the greatest need of His people, the need for righteousness and rescue from evil, sin, and death, and He knew our helplessness, and He came near before we even cried.¹⁷

Yet death was not the end of Jesus, because death could not keep its hold on Him.¹⁸ Three days after He died, He came back to life. And because death was not the end for Jesus Christ, then death is not the end for all those united by faith to Him.¹⁹ 

We who believe in Christ have new life even now, and we have entrance to the throne room of our God Almighty.²⁰ We, like the Israelites of old, can pray earnestly to our God who hears the cries of His people, to the God who draws near and answers in incredible ways. So let us pray, and let us pray with boldness and persistence, for we know that He will continue answering according to His good will.

Time after time, our God proves the truth of Moses’ words: He draws near to those who cry out to Him. He provides for our every need.²¹ “There is none like You among the gods, o Lord, nor are there any works like Yours…for You are great and do wondrous things; You alone are God.”²² Thank God that He does not change.²³ He is the same prayer-answering, people-rescuing, new-life-giving God we speak to today.

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”²⁴

1. Deuteronomy 4:7 ↩︎
2. Psalm 121:2 ↩︎
3. Exodus 2:23-25 ↩︎
4. Exodus 7-12 ↩︎
5. Exodus 12:31-39 ↩︎
6. Genesis 13:14-17; 15:12-17 ↩︎
7. 1 Samuel 1:1-20 ↩︎
8. 1 Samuel 10:1; 16:11-13 ↩︎
9. 2 Kings 18:17-19:37 ↩︎
10. 2 Kings 19:35 ↩︎
11. Acts 12:5 ↩︎
12. Acts 12:1-19 ↩︎
13. Luke 22:39-44 ↩︎
14. Isaiah 53:5 ↩︎
15. Acts 2:38 ↩︎
16. 2 Corinthians 5:21 ↩︎
17. Ephesians 1:4 ↩︎
18. Acts 2:24 ↩︎
19. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 ↩︎
20. Hebrews 4:14-16 ↩︎
21. Philippians 4:19 ↩︎
22. Psalm 86:8, 10 ↩︎
23. Malachi 3:6 ↩︎
24. Ephesians 3:20-21 ↩︎