Come and listen, all who fear God,
and I will tell you what he did for
me.
For I cried out to him
for help,
praising him as I spoke.
If I had not confessed
the sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But God did listen!
He paid attention to my prayer.
Praise God, who did
not ignore my prayer
or withdraw his unfailing love from
me.
(Psalm
66:16-20 NLT)
I have a love / hate relationship with church signs. I
believe they offer a valuable way to communicate with the world but often are wasted
with pithy statements that do nothing to glorify the name of Christ and more
often result in shaking heads and groans than a chuckle or a serious thought
about the church. I truly think most people ignore them. For some reason, I
love reading them just to see how cringe-worthy they can be. This morning on
the way to work I saw one that caught my attention for its brevity, simplicity
and power:
GOD HEARS YOU
Honestly I was deeply moved by its profundity. It came as
such a sharp reminder: God, the Creator of all things, the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords, hears little me – one voice in a multitude. It speaks of a
relationship with God that transcends what we find in any other religion – an
intimate, personal relationship, so much so that we call him Father. He is not
a God removed from us, but a God who is with us. He is not a God who shuns us,
but a God who desires to redeem us and walk with us.
Last year’s Christian blockbuster was “God’s Not Dead.” As
Christians we heartily embrace that statement. However, maybe we should also
embrace the concept of “God’s not deaf.” He hears us. He hears the good, the
bad and the ugly of our lives. He hears the plea of the oppressed, depressed
and totally stressed. If we are experiencing a problem with our connection with
God then we can rest assured it is from our end. The Psalmist writes, “If I had
not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”
The only form of interference between us and God is sin – it
creates something we might label “sin-terference.” Fortunately it is easy to
fix as the beloved disciple John tells us, “But if we confess our sins to him,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
wickedness (1 John 1:9 NLT).” God is eager to forgive, and equally eager to
listen. He abhors the sin and wickedness of mankind, but has a deep unfailing
love for mankind at the same time.
The most perplexing thing can be when we don’t receive a
response from God in the way we expect. I’d love for him to shoot me a text,
but that’s not the way he has chosen to work. He speaks in so many ways that we
often overlook, but most importantly and consistently through the power of his
Word – the Bible. Ultimately, the question we need to ask is not so much, “Does
God hear us?” but rather, “Do we hear God?”
I am praying to you
because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray.
(Psalm 17:6 NLT)
I prayed to the LORD,
and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.
(Psalm 34:4 NLT)
But in my distress I
cried out to the LORD;
yes, I prayed to my God for help;
He heard me from his
sanctuary;
my cry to him reached his ears.
(Psalm 18:6 NLT)
