Does God Hear Our Prayers?

I am aroused from a great book tonight to post in response to the anonymous comment left concerning my post from this morning. The anonymous author points out that the book of Jonah recounts the efforts of a prophet sent to a gentile (and hostile) nation to warn of God's judgment if they did not repent. Does God hear your prayers regardless of your ethnicity or nationality? The answer is a resounding yes, but only in as much as we call on God's name according to his terms.

Anonymous writes: I think we could benefit from a review of the Book of Jonah (a book that Judaism, Islam and Christianity understand). God hears all prayers, from everyone. A merciful and peaceful God who actively listens and helps both Jew and Gentile.

The main problem with a philosophy that claims that all religions worship the same god (especially Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) is that no religion makes that claim for itself. God, the God of the Bible is a God open to all people as they call on his name, but only as people call to him on his own terms. He is the Great I AM, without beginning or end. We, as the creation have no right to say to the Creator what he should be called, rather we submit to his terms as our Master.

Remember, Jonah did not call on the people to cry out to their own gods, he called on the people of Ninevah to cry out for mercy to the one true and living God. It was YAHWEH to whom they cried and it was YAHWEH who forgave, not the gods created by their hands. God is passionate first and foremost for his own glory and that glory is bound up in his name. He is the God who saves, but salvation is found in the name of Jesus.