God is not too busy for your prayers.

Honestly, I’ve never heard anyone state, “But God’s too busy to listen” as the reason they don’t pray. They might feel it, or secretly deep down believe it… but they don’t say this.

Because while they may not know squat about God, they are fully he’s almighty. Even pagans describe him as almighty. He has the power to effortlessly handle the volume of eight billion prayers a minute; basic divine almightiness includes the ability to juggle infinite conversations. They know that at least.

They might’ve seen the movie Bruce Almighty, in which God (played by Morgan Freeman) grants Bruce Nolan (played by Jim Carrey) his powers. Bruce also has to hear all the prayers God does, and he can’t handle the volume. (God later explains he’s aware Bruce can’t handle the prayers of the whole planet, so he just limited Bruce to his hometown. That’s still a lot—and Bruce can’t handle that either.) So they might suspect God can’t give each individual prayer the attention we’d like him to. But they still know God, as popularly described by both Christians and non-Christians, can so give each individual prayer his attention. ’Cause they know Bruce isn’t God… and for that matter neither is Morgan Freeman.

So yeah, this “God’s too busy” line is one people already know isn’t true. May struggle to believe it, but know it’s not true. May have to be reminded of the fact it’s not true, just a little… but only a little. Well here ya go: Your little reminder.

In my experience, whenever people say God’s not listening, they never say it’s because God can’t handle the prayer traffic. Instead they presume he’s not listening for other reasons. Usually a petty or silly one, like “I prayed wrong” or “I’m not worthy”—as if God only answers the prayers of the deserving, and that’s not them.

Because even little pagan kids know God’s not too busy to hear their prayers. Their ideas about God may have entirely come from popular culture, but pop culture nonetheless conveys the idea God hears all. Kinda like Santa Claus! Santa sees you when you’re sleeping, knows when you’re awake, knows if you’ve been bad or good… yet for some reason doesn’t know what you want for Christmas till you go to the shopping mall and tell him, but little kids never really think about that particular inconsistency. Anyway God’s at least as omniscient as Santa, and isn’t too busy to hear everything you’ve told him.

So it’s probably an utter waste of time for me to write an article about why God’s not too busy for our prayers: People already know otherwise! But I’m not gonna rule out the possibility, however small, that there’s some doubting Christian out there who somehow got the idea God’s just too busy for them.

God’s never been too busy for unworthy petitioners.

The false idea that God hasn’t time for us, is easily disproven by the fact he regularly makes time for undeserving people. And no, I’m not just talking about sinners who repent, turn to Jesus, and say the sinner’s prayer. I’m talking about fleshly Christians who nonetheless get their prayer requests answered. They’re lousy examples of Christ-followers; they’re jerks; if answers to prayer were totally based on merit, realistically they should get nothing. Or worse than nothing; God should be like that bad father who gives his son a snake instead of a fish, or a rock instead of bread, or a scorpion instead of an egg. Lk 11.10-11 NKJV But thankfully God does grace.

I’ve known ministry leaders who were real jerks. Casually obnoxious to the people they minister to. Can’t say a pleasant thing to anyone unless they want something from them. Judgmental, unforgiving, rude, unloving. But their ministry job actually does help people, and when they ask God for money or resources for that ministry, God grants it. Obviously because God’s more concerned about the needy people whom these leaders actually do help.

I’ve seen ministry leaders who… well I don’t know whether they’re jerks, ’cause I don’t know them personally. But they’re mighty materialistic, so I have my doubts. And regardless of their materialism, God likewise appears to give ’em what they ask for. They ask him for a bunch of money to build a new center; they get the money. I suspect it’s the same deal as the jerk-like ministry leaders I know: They actually help people, and God only cares about helping those people. As for the ministry leader himself… well at this rate he’s gonna be one of those guys at the End who say, “Lord, I ran a ministry in your name!” and Jesus responds, “Maybe so, but I don’t know you.”

If God answers the prayers of these numbnuts, I find it hard to imagine he can’t answer yours. Even if you’re just as big a numbnut.

I know; there are people who look at poorly-behaved Christians and insist, “No; God can’t bless such awful people. It’s not God. It’s Satan.” It bugs their sensibilities. But it’s a really problematic stance to take. God, you remember, does grace. God blesses people who, despite their own bad behavior, still obey him; still help the needy. And if the needy are indeed getting helped… why on earth would Satan be behind that? Satan has no interest in helping the needy; at the very least it wants to deport them to El Salvadorian concentration camps.

Nope. God has a consistent track record of helping the undeserving. You might be undeserving, but there’s no reason God can’t take the time—or even literally make the time—to help you too.