God Hears Our Prayers--His Part

How do we know God hears the groans of his children? David said, 'My groaning is not hidden from you' (Psa. 38:9). Also, 'He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him; he will also hear their cry, and will save them (Psa. 145:19). This must be so:
(1) Because he is gracious and merciful; he is a God who hears prayers.
(2) Because of the relations which in his love he has taken upon himself, to be a Father. So that when a man will, by the Spirit of adoption, call God 'Father,' he cannot choose but hear. Even as a child, when he speaks to his father, and calls him by this name, he cannot but hear.
(3) Because of his nature and love, which is above the love of an earthly father. Though a mother should forget, and not hear her child, yet the Lord will hear us. This is his promise, 'Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will hear you, and you shall glorify me' (Psa. 50:15).
(4) Because God cannot ignore our prayers, because they are the motions of his own Spirit. Oh, but they are broken prayers. It is true; but the Spirit understands them and makes intercession for us, with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed; and none can understand them but the Spirit (Rom. 8:26).
(5) God cannot but hear our prayers because they are offered up in the name of a mediator. They are perfumed with the incense and sacrifice of his Son.
(6) Because our prayers are made according to his will. When we pray for ourselves, and for the church of God, it is according to God's will. So then, if we consider these respects, God cannot but hear our prayers.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Josiah's Reformation, pp. 121-23 [94-95]
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