Lord, please listen to me…
Lord, please listen to me…
Dear Friend,
Jesus told a parable about two men who went up to the temple to pray (Luke 18:9-14). One prayed with pride and pretension, while the other prayed with honesty and humility. Jesus said it was the second one who had an open channel of communication with God. One prayed wrongly, the other rightly.
James 4:2-3 talks about "praying wrongly." I figure if we are warned not to pray wrongly, then it must mean that we can pray rightly.
When we pray rightly, with humility and honesty, we open our side of the channel of communication with God while pride and pretension close the channel.
It seems that the Lord of the universe is very willing to listen to humble and honest prayers. The root word of listen is “list,” which means to lean. You may notice that when someone listens carefully to you, that person may actually lean forward towards you, narrowing the distance between you, or may turn an ear toward you to hear you better. A person who truly listens to you not only pays attention to your words but especially the meaning and feelings behind your words. That person concentrates on hearing your heart.
That is how God listens when we pray with humility and honesty. He leans in. He turns his ear. Humility and honesty catch his attention, he wants to hear every word of such prayer.
Psalm 17:6 says, “I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.” When you pray, the Lord God of the universe is leaning toward you, turning his ear to hear you better. One of my favorite translations of this verse puts it this way: “bend down and hear me.” This reminds me of a daddy walking with his child and the child says something, and the daddy bends down to hear his precious child better. His little one has his full attention.
Whatever is going on in your life right now, dear friend, I want you to know that God, our "Abba-Daddy" is bending down to listen, he is turning his ear to hear you better. So let us pray rightly, humbly, honestly.