GOD LISTENS
The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.’ (Psalm 34:15)
Do you share the frustration that I feel when I telephone a business, only to be greeted by a machine who wants to offer me 47 options and prompt me to press buttons for the department of my choice? Calling to make an airline reservation yesterday, I found that these phone options are obviously breeding and multiplying, because every time I made a choice I then found myself trawling through yet another sub-menu of other options. It took about twenty minutes to navigate my way through this maze until, at last, I got through to an actual person. Why the frustration? I just wanted to talk to a real live human being, someone with a brain and a set of ears, who could listen to me.
It’s obvious, but we need to be reminded: God listens to us. Prayer is not just an exercise for the pious, a discipline to embrace. It is far more than us venting our fears in a self-help mechanism that make us feel better. Prayer is our opportunity to talk to the God who is real, alive and interested. Suffering sometimes makes us wonder not only if there is a God, but whether He is remotely concerned with what we go through and the words that we speak to Him. And in the Psalms David, figuratively speaking, is continually knocking at God’s door, demanding a listening, attentive audience.
Speak up. God is tuned in.