Jesus Café Ministries - Scripture Squad - Does God hear the prayers of a sinner?

The Scripture Squad responds...

From: gray7lady
Does God hear the prayers of a sinner, who has not yet accepted Jesus Christ, please provide scripture references. Thank you.

Hi gray7lady,
We know that God does hear and acknowledge the prayer of salvation for in 1 Timothy 2:3-4 Paul says: "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

If you take your concordance (we've used a NAS concordance), and look up every mention of the word "prayer" and its variances you can come up with some interesting info! We encourage you to do this! It's a fascinating study! We've just mentioned one verse for each point we wanted to make in answering your particular question, but there are actually several for each.

Intercessory prayer is done on behalf of an unbeliever by a believer (Genesis 20:7).
Intercessory prayer is done on behalf of carnal believers by a believer (1 Samuel 12:19-24).
Praying to false gods is futile (Isaiah 45:20).
God does not hear the prayers of those who do not listen to His prophets (Jeremiah 16).

The disciples asked Jesus to show them how to pray. We are not born knowing how to do this and they wanted instructions from the Master. In Matthew 6, we see whom we are to direct our prayers to "our Father who art in heaven." John tells us, "But as many as received Him [Jesus Christ], to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13) See also John 3:5. To pray a prayer that gets results, you must be a worshiper of the One to whom you are praying.

Throughout Scripture we see those who had put their faith in God as communicating with God through prayer, whether they looked forward to a Redeemer, or back at the Cross.

- The Scripture Squad :
TCCaleb, TCCaff, RuthCCC & DawnCCC