I have been a believer for close to 25 years now and one of the things you hear a lot is the complaint about our prayers bouncing back from a proverbial ceiling. The scenario is common. We are going through a tough stretch, we pray and feel like God is not hearing us but rather slaps our prayers back down our throats like a Shaquille O’Neil rejection in the lane. Or even worse it feels like He is indifferent toward our plight. “ho, hum” yawns the Almighty toward our earnest prayer. Why doesn’t He hear me?
But, what about the times when He does hear? Or at least you feel like He hears. (it is my conviction that He hears all our prayers). I was perusing the Psalms yesterday morning and ran across this verse in Ps 18:6- “in my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him into His ears.” The is written by David after God had rescued him from his enemies.
The thought struck me that most time I don’t realize or recognize that God has heard me until after the crisis. David was like that in this passage. Earlier in the Psalm he was talking about how death had circled him and he was about to die. But God heard him. I wonder how he felt as Saul was chasing him? Or when the spear almost impaled him? Or when his best friend Jonathan told him, “you better leave town cause my dad is gonna kill you”? Was God hearing his prayer then?
But on the backside of the dessert our mind has cleared ad we look back with 20/20 vision and realize… He did hear! He did come to my aid! He does care! He was listening! As David said, “my cry came before Him into His ear.”
If you want a powerful image of God moving on your behalf read the next couple of paragraphs after Ps 18:6 as the God of David rolls into town in power and sends David’s enemies to flight. We can’t give up too soon! Just because you have struggling for years doesn’t mean He doesn’t hear. God centeredness is forged on the anvil of pain over time. Some or us have prayed, “God make me like You.” and then when He does if feels like He has left us! But He hasn’t. He is still working on us! It’s like the old kid song, “He’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient He must be, He’s still working on me!
Next time you feel like He doesn’t hear look back and remember how He has come to your aid before. He hears you!
Life and times of the howitzers 