How to Tell if God Hears Our Prayers for Ukraine

Rumors turned into reality, and a watching world also felt the blow. I heard the news through the #PrayForUkraine images that began flooding social media.

The world was praying, and I felt helpless, grasping for the right words to say, the right way to pray. Finally, I penned this:

When we have no words, You hear our silent groans.

May we not forget that Your heart hurts too.

You hold every crushing ounce of the pain.

You hold every single bleeding heart.

Today we pray for a broken world questioning if You are here, and if You hear.

The strength of our prayers are not determined by our smallness, but by Your greatness.

So we plead for rent heavens. We plead for divine protection. We plead for injustice to stop.

And we remember that when it feels like You are silent, maybe it’s because You are crying too.

We talk a lot about mission around here. How we can root deep into God and live lives that ripple out into our neighborhoods and communities. How loving our neighbor includes loving our literal neighbors by noticing, listening, serving, and growing friendships with the people who live near us.

But loving our next-to-us neighbors does not mean we don’t also hurt with our across-the-globe neighbors in crisis.

It’s a both/and, not an either/or, and we love fuller when we love without exclusions, exemptions, and prerequisites.

So I know, friend, that your heart is hurting for our friends in Ukraine too. I see how you’ve been joining the prayer movement sweeping the world. And I applaud the way you are being moved by the things that move God’s heart.

But I also wonder if there isn’t a little question inside us, rising in intensity as the tensions rise and number of lives tossed ruthlessly aside rises too.

I wonder if we doubt that our prayers matter. I wonder if a piece of us believes that God either doesn’t hear, or He doesn’t care.

Can we talk about it?

Because maybe there’s a skeptical refrain replaying in our minds that suggests prayer doesn’t do anything more than perhaps make us feel a little bit better.

How can we tell if God hears our prayers for Ukraine?

1—God tells us to pray about everything.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything . . .”

Philippians 4:6a NLT

The word everything is all-encompassing. It leaves nothing out. Certainly, if we are to pray about everything, one nation brutally bullying another is reason to pray.

Would God ask us to pray about everything if He only hears some of the prayers? I have to circle back to His heart. What do I know to be true of Him? This brings me to point #2.

2—God’s heart breaks for hurting people.

Throughout scripture, we find guidance on how to treat other people. God’s desire is for us to “do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12 NLT), “be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3 NLT), do “no wrong to others” (Romans 13:10), and “live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ” (Ephesians 5:2 NLT).

When we err, we grieve His heart.

We see how Jesus was moved with compassion for those coming to Him for healing. How He has a tender spot for widows and orphans (James 1:27).

In Psalm 82:3, we are encouraged to “defend the defenseless, the fatherless and the forgotten, the disenfranchised and the destitute” (TPT).

“The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain,” declares Psalm 34:18 TPT. That’s why He’s “a God who makes things right, giving justice to the defenseless” (Psalm 103:6 TPT).

How heavy God’s heart is over the oppression in Ukraine!

3—God promises He hears us when we pray according to His heart.

God wants us to pray about all the things, and we know His unfathomably deep love means His great heart can be greatly broken. Yet still, sometimes we’re faithful in prayer, but it doesn’t seem that God holds up His end of the deal. He doesn’t always come in shining armor to save the day.

Somedays are dark, so dark, and our hearts are heavy with sadness.

Where is He then?

Does He still hear our cries?

I come back to this verse—the one that simultaneously comforts and befuddles me:

Since we have this confidence, we can also have great boldness before him, for if we ask anything agreeable to his will, he will hear us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we also know that we have obtained the requests we ask of him.

1 John 5:14-15 TPT

If God hears and answers the requests that align with His heart, and He invites me into close relationship with Him so I might learn what’s in line with His will, are unanswered prayers ones I’ve asked amiss? If God cares so deeply about those oppressed and broken-hearted, how can saving them from the horror not be in line with His heart?

I don’t know for sure about you, but I could list prayers I’ve prayed that haven’t come true.

How do we reconcile the discrepancy?

Or are we asking the wrong question?

Here’s why:

4—There are still battles, but the war’s already been won.

The truth is that we are on a battle ground, and the heat of the battle is not just on some other side of the world, it’s right here at our doorstep for every one of us. It’s a cosmic clash of the greatest Good and the darkest Evil.

But what’s also true is that the end of the story has already been written. Light has already won. And He’s coming for us, for all of us caught in the crossfires of the battles yet raging.

The war continues because He’s fighting for us.

He won’t surrender.

He won’t give in.

Until the final day when death can rule no more, it will throw up a fight.

But God. He left us with this promise:

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33 NLT

The end is coming, but we’re not there yet. And in the in-between, we keep praying. “Even if not,” as says the title of Kaitlyn Bouchillon’s book, we keep praying.

It’s the nevertheless-thanks I found in Psalm 89:52: “Nevertheless, blessed be our God forever and ever. Amen. Faithful is our King!” (TPT). The thanks that we choose in the in-between place of prayer and answer. The thanks that coming before we see the miracle, and even if we never see it this side of heaven.

Because that’s where we are—this side of heaven. And all will not be fulfilled here as it will be one day.

One day, every last tear will be wiped away (Revelation 7:17) and all nations will “no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires” (Jeremiah 3:17 NLT). One day the weighty glory of God will illuminate all, brighter than any light we’ve ever known. And there will no more night. (Revelation 21:23-25).

God does not operate on the same timetable as the one we understand. He never promises that He will an answer on our terms, but we can bank on the promise that one day all will be made right.

How then shall we pray for Ukraine?

First, we pray about everything. We bring God the things that grieve us, the things that wrench our hearts wide open, and the things that we don’t understand. If we are to “tell Him every detail of [our lives]” (Philippians 4:6), this includes the heavy, hard stuff, and the seemingly yet-unanswered requests.

Second, we thread prayer throughout our day (1 Thess. 5:17). In other words, we keep praying.

Third, we pray according to His heart. This means that we spend time with Him, because the only way to know His heart is to root deep into Him. We can learn what moves His heart through scripture and by spending time at His feet, turning our ears to listen, and opening our eyes to see through His.

One way we can be sure we are praying according to God’s heart is to pray scripture back to Him, claiming what our faithful God has already promised.

For a list of verses you can pray over Ukraine, check out this article.

This Instagram post by Ann Voskamp includes prayer points that can guide you in praying for Ukraine too.

So, sweet friends, let’s pray. For deliverance. For protection. For hearts to turn. For God to make a way.

Let’s pray in our closets and on our knees and in our cars while waiting in the pick-up line. Let’s invite others to pray with us. Let’s gather in our homes and churches and workplaces and virtual spaces to pray.

What else can we do while we pray?

While we pray, we can also donate funds through a reputable relief organization that can quickly get the resources to those who need it. This NBC15 article includes a list of BBB Accredited organizations that are assisting Ukraine. The Washington Post likewise shared a list of ways we can help Ukraine.

Let’s keep praying!

Wish you knew your IRL (in-real-life) neighbors?

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