2 Chronicles 30:27
“Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven.”
One of the keys to a successful Christian life is getting God to hear your prayers. It is not that God won’t listen, it is simply that our hearts are not prepared to be in His presence. God says in Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” There are requirements that God has before He will hear our prayers.
In the verse above it says, “…and their voice was heard…” That is truly the desire of every sincere Christian. Nobody wants to pray and have their prayers seemingly go no further than the room they are in. When you pray, you expect God to hear. There was a reason that God heard Hezekiah and his people. They didn’t go to God living the sinful life that had brought God’s judgment; instead, they took actions that created a clear line of fellowship with God so that their prayers could be heard. There were five actions they took to make this happen.
First, they re-established fellowship with God by being present in Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread. They were showing God that they wanted to re-establish fellowship with Him. You can’t expect God to hear your prayer when you continue to live a sinful life. There must be a turning back to God with a desire to re-establish fellowship with Him if you want your prayers to be heard.
Second, they sang the praises of God. This may sound trivial, but this was all part of what they did that led up to God hearing their prayer. Verse 21 says, “…the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the LORD.” You won’t get God to hear your prayers when you’re playing the music of the world. God wants to hear you sing, but He wants to hear music that properly praises Him.
Third, they confessed their sins to God. You will never get God to hear your prayer without honest confession of sin. Simply saying, “God, forgive me of all my sin” is not confessing your sin. Confession entails disclosing to God every sin you have done with a heart to change your actions. This has nothing to do with salvation, but this has everything to do with getting God to hear your prayers. Until you’re serious enough to do this, you will not get God to hear your prayers.
Fourth, they obeyed the preaching of God’s Word. In verse 23, they obeyed the “counsel” that was given to them. This was preaching! Preaching plays an important role in everyone’s life because God uses preaching to show us what we need to do and what we need to change.
Fifth, they prayed! I know this sounds inessential to this whole thing, but God cannot hear your prayers unless you pray. Friend, you need to have a daily time with God to pray. When you follow the preceding four steps and then take this fifth step to actually pray, then you can have confidence that God is hearing what you are saying. When He hears your prayers, it is then that He will take action to answer your prayers according to His will.