“… and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.”

There is a state of being we can live in where God will listen and answer all our prayers that we ask for. It is a state of total surrender to the will and law of God. We cannot access this position without a total change in our character and a repenting of all our corrupt ways.

God does not spoil His children nor does He have favourites. But for all who love Him enough to keep His holy commandments, there is also answers to prayers. Whatever we ask will be according to His will, for we will be in tune with His ways and purposes for us and for other people. We will know the Lord and therefore pray with understanding and insight on behalf of other people. However, we must walk a worthy walk with Him, not in the conceits of our own thinking or imagination, but in the reality of everyday life.

What does it look like to be pleasing in the sight of the holy God?

We will walk with God in obedience and faith and seek His will for our lives. His will is that we live holy lives as He is holy.

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ— as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior, because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:13-16

We will conform out life to the standards set out for us in the Word of God and not according to the craven appetites of this world. The power of our living comes from the Father who gave the Word and from the indwelling Holy Spirit. He will witness to us and keep our conscience sensitive to the approaches of sin so that we stay away from temptation.

Beloved, there is so much more to be gained from following the Lord Jesus than from fraternising with this world. Let us be holy people, who’s prayers are heard and answered and we are full of the Holy Spirit who guides us.

“The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.”

James 5:16