"...This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him."-- 1 John 5:14, 15

Do we realize the close proximity of the Lord to us when we offer a prayer to our Father? It would be the same as speaking worthless words into empty space or just talking to the wall, if we do not understand this principle. How can we know that our requests have been made known to God? It is not possible, unless He responds by assuring us that our prayers have been heard, I am convinced that it is impossible to pray properly or with any confidence at all to our Lord and Savior without first being fully aware of His closeness to us.

"...The Lord is at hand."-- Philippians 4:5

Knowing and understanding that God hears us when we pray is so much more than just a pleasing assumption about prayer. Spiritual awareness in prayer is the rule of spiritual life. We delight in prayer when we recognize that the, "…Lord is at hand". Paul said, "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, rejoice." The understanding that the Lord is close to us is the cause of continuous praise. From the Scripture text above (1 John 5:14, 15) the Apostle John is in essence saying, "If you are positive that God hears you when you pray, then you can be sure you have the answer." It is obvious that we should first be sure that He hears our prayers before we can identify or believe that we have our answer.

In this troubled world, if His permanent presence with us is not the only source of a lifelong joyfulness, then please will someone come and guide us to the place of eternal happiness. God's own Word shows us clearly that the Lord will lead our exhausted feet in the direction of praise.

"Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." Psalm. 16:11.

The capacity of our joy is always in ratio to the amount of praying we do. This is actually true, we should pray without stopping in order to have "joy unspeakable and full of glory". Discover that the "joy of the Lord is (our) strength", and "His abiding presence" is our shield. Maybe Paul was in prison when he expressed these undying words of praise. That dark and dirty prison was not as carefully guarded as the Roman jailer had thought, or its iron bars as tightly fixed so that our Lord was not allowed to enter its gloomy quarters to provide the comfort and courage needed by His suffering servant.

If you could have asked Paul what he had found in that soggy cell that caused him to sound such a heartfelt and beautiful note of praise, he would have smiled and said, "...The Lord is at hand." Christ's reassuring nearness caused Paul, as a prisoner to "praise God from whom all blessings flow", and His guaranteed presence encouraged this miserable saint to sing with all his heart. The lifeless confines of a jail cannot smother the songs of a soul covered with the happiness of God. The righteous may be enslaved in the dungeons of life, and the redeemed child of God will be secured in the stocks of evil, but their achieving faith is not restrained in the least, and their prayers can not put in irons or muffled in the despairs of this world. From the central cubicle of this common jail the singing servants of God shook the very foundations of the earth, which caused the most hardened of sinners, the Roman jailer and his family to seek salvation through Christ.

A medical condition of the body may incarcerate a child of God in the same way the walls of a federal prison will; but the adversity of our bodies and the trials of life cannot stop the saints of God from singing in the "in the valley of the shadow of death" like those that sing in the shining daylight. For it is written,

"...He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart."-- Psalm. 32:11.