This 5-day devotional draws directly from Christian Fellowship Church🔹Pastor Scott Cheramie's sermon “According to His will - 2026-06-29” so you can keep engaging with the message all week. Read, reflect, and share it with your small group or friends.
When You Pray, He Hears You
Monday — Understanding the Truth
Have you ever wondered if your prayers are actually going anywhere — or if you're just talking to the ceiling?
Today's Scripture "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." — 1 John 5:14
Reflection Here's something worth sitting with this week: prayer isn't about convincing God to do things your way. It's about drawing close enough to him to see things his way.
That might feel like a subtle shift, but it changes everything. When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed one of the most honest prayers ever recorded. He said, Father, if you're willing, take this cup from me — yet not my will, but yours be done. He didn't pretend. He didn't perform. He told God exactly what he was feeling, and then he surrendered to something bigger than his own comfort.
That's the model. Not a transaction, not a negotiation — a conversation between a child and a Father who is already listening.
The confidence this verse talks about isn't arrogance. It's assurance. Because of Jesus, you have direct access to God — no appointment needed, no waiting room, no secretary to get past. He's already attentive to you. He hears every word.
And when your prayer lines up with what God wants for your life, something powerful happens: you can trust the outcome, even when it looks different than you expected.
Today's Step Before you pray today, try starting with this: "Father, help me want what you want." Just that one line. See what opens up.
A Closing Thought You are not shouting into silence. The God of the universe is already leaning in, listening for your voice.
He Already Knows What You're Feeling
Tuesday — When It's Hard
What do you do when you've prayed and prayed — and nothing seems to change?
Today's Scripture "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." — Romans 8:26
Reflection Let's be honest about something: praying "not my will, but yours" is one of the hardest things a person can do. It sounds beautiful in a devotional. It feels like a different story when you're in the middle of something painful and God's answer seems to be silence — or worse, no.
Maybe you've been praying for healing, for a relationship to be restored, for a situation at work to finally turn around. And it hasn't. And you're starting to wonder if God is even listening, or if prayer even matters.
Here's what's true, even when it doesn't feel true: God always answers prayer. Sometimes it's yes. Sometimes it's not yet. And sometimes — for reasons that don't make sense to us right now — it's no. The apostle Paul prayed three times for God to remove something painful from his life. God said no. Not because he didn't care, but because he was doing something in Paul that mattered more than Paul's comfort in that moment.
That's a hard truth. But it's also a freeing one. You don't have to have the perfect words. You don't have to figure out exactly what to ask for. The Holy Spirit is already interceding for you — praying what you need, not just what you want.
You are not alone in this.
Today's Step If prayer has felt frustrating lately, tell God that. He can handle your honesty. Ask him to help you trust him even in the silence.
A Closing Thought The God who sees every tear you've cried has not looked away from you — not even once.
Three Ways to Pray More Honestly
Wednesday — Putting It Into Practice
What would it look like to actually pray with God instead of at him?
Today's Scripture "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." — Hebrews 4:16
Reflection Prayer doesn't have to be complicated. But it does help to have a few real handles to hold onto — especially when life is messy and your words feel thin.
Here are three practical ways to grow in prayer this week, drawn straight from what Scripture actually teaches:
Start with God's Word. Before you bring your requests, spend a few minutes reading the Bible. God's Word shows you what he values, what he promises, and what he's already doing. It shapes what you ask for. When your prayers are informed by Scripture, they naturally begin to align with God's will rather than just your own wishlist.
Pray honestly. God already knows how you feel — you're not going to surprise him. Jesus didn't pretend in the garden. He said exactly what he was feeling and then surrendered the outcome. You can do the same. Tell God what you're afraid of, what you're hoping for, what you don't understand.
Invite the Spirit to lead. You don't always know how to pray for a situation. That's okay. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your prayers, to pray through you for what you truly need. This is a simple, quiet act of surrender — and it opens something up.
None of this requires a long prayer or impressive words. Just a willing heart and a few honest minutes.
Today's Step Pick one of these three approaches and try it today. Even five minutes of honest, scripture-shaped prayer is a real and meaningful conversation with God.
A Closing Thought You don't have to have it all figured out to come to him — you just have to come.
The Prayer That Changed Everything
Thursday — What This Looks Like in Real Life
Sometimes the most powerful thing isn't getting the answer you wanted — it's discovering you can trust the one who answers.
Today's Scripture "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry." — Psalm 34:15
Reflection Imagine someone who has been praying the same prayer for months. A health diagnosis that won't budge. A relationship that seems beyond repair. Every morning, the same request. Every night, the same silence.
At some point, something shifts — not in the circumstances, but in the prayer itself. Instead of God, fix this, it becomes God, I trust you in this. Not because the situation got easier, but because something in them began to believe that God's eyes really were on them. That he really did hear. That his purposes were bigger than the outcome they'd been demanding.
That shift — from trying to control the outcome to trusting the one in control — is exactly what the Bible describes when it talks about praying according to God's will. It doesn't mean you stop caring about the situation. It doesn't mean you stop asking. It means you hold your requests with open hands instead of clenched fists.
And here's what's remarkable: peace often arrives not when the storm ends, but when you stop fighting the storm alone. When you let God be God in the middle of it.
The certainty of prayer isn't that you'll always get what you asked for. It's that you are heard — fully, completely, attentively — by a Father whose love for you never wavers.
Today's Step Think of one situation you've been gripping tightly in prayer. Today, try releasing it with open hands: "Father, I trust you with this — even if I don't understand it yet."
A Closing Thought You may not see the full picture yet, but the one who does is already working on your behalf.
Take This With You
Friday — Carrying It Forward
As the week winds down, here's the question worth carrying into the weekend: What if prayer is less about changing your circumstances and more about changing you?
Today's Scripture "And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him." — 1 John 5:15
Reflection This week, we've been sitting with a truth that's both simple and quietly revolutionary: prayer isn't a strategy for getting God to do things our way. It's an invitation to align with what he's already doing.
We looked at how Jesus modeled honest, surrendered prayer in the garden. We acknowledged how hard it is to trust God when the answer is no or not yet. We explored what it looks like to come to God with open hands — through his Word, through honesty, through the Spirit's guidance.
And underneath all of it runs this steady, sustaining truth: he hears you. Every word. Every cry. Every prayer whispered in a car, in a hospital waiting room, in the quiet of a sleepless night. His eyes are on you. His ears are attentive to you. That never changes.
As you head into the weekend, you don't need to have everything figured out. You don't need to pray perfectly or understand all of God's ways. You just need to keep coming to him — honestly, regularly, with a heart that's willing to be shaped by what he wants rather than only what you want.
That willingness is itself a kind of prayer. And he hears it.
Today's Step This weekend, set aside even ten minutes to sit quietly with God — no agenda, no list. Just tell him where you are, and ask him to show you where he's leading.
A Closing Thought You are not navigating this life alone. The Father is listening, and he is already at work in ways you haven't seen yet.