God Hears Us
Introduction
2 Samuel 22:7,17-19
A child was mumbling his prayers and his mom said, "Please speak louder. I can't hear you!" The little fellow replied, "I wasn't talking to you."
Well God does hear us. The Scripture says, "In my distress I called to the Lord . . . he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. The Lord was my support" (2 Sam. 22:7,17,19).
All of us want to feel that someone is listening. All of us need understanding and sympathy. This Scripture tells us that God is there for us. The Psalmist said, "O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me" (Psa. 30:2).
It's important to note that being heard does help us heal. A woman said, "My friend was an attractive young woman, who always seemed to have the world in her pocket. So when she shared with me the heartbreak of her broken marriage and her terrible struggles as a single parent, I was stunned. So stunned that I could manage only an occasional sympathetic murmur, unable to recall even one of my usual glib, 'fix-it' slogans. By the end of the conversation, I felt I'd failed her completely. Imagine my amazement when she said, 'Thank you! This is the best visit we've ever had. I really needed to talk to someone today.' It was a humbling experience to learn that, to her, our best conversation was the one in which I'd said almost nothing! I decided I must learn to 'trust the silences' because often people need my listening ear much more than they need my advice."
Hearing a person with empathy is "Holy Listening." One woman wrote: "When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice, you have not done what I asked. Advice is cheap: 50 cents will get you Dear Abby in a newspaper. Also, when I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn't feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings. When I ask you to listen to me and you try to solve my problem, you contribute to my weakness. All I ask is, that you listen. Just hear me!"
Perhaps that's why prayer is so important. God doesn't give advice or try to fix things. He just listens. He hears us! So, under what circumstance does God "hear" us?
I. GOD HEARS US WHEN WE'RE AFRAID
He reassures us. The Psalmist says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me"
(Psa.23:4).
Later he says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-- of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psa. 27:1).
"You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday" (Psa. 91:5-6).
Such Scriptures are important because the history of our species is the history of fear. Once we were huddled around fires in caves, hiding from the saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths lurking outside. A hundred years ago we lost half our children to painful diseases. Now, we wonder if we will escape a nuclear holocaust or a terrorist attack. Fear is here to stay. It's how we deal with our fear that makes or breaks us. Having faith that God hears will help us deal with it.
Once a Chinese man named Lo attended a meeting and listened with little interest as several speakers expounded the word of God. However, He became extremely excited when one of the ministers read as his text these words of Jesus, "And, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). "Oh, My!" the immigrant remembers saying to himself, "The Lord really knows my name and makes me a promise like that!
Well, the Lord has made this same promise to each one of us. Jesus said, "Peace I leave with You; my peace I give you . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27).
God hears us when we're afraid.
II. GOD HEARS US WHEN WE'RE DEPRESSED
He lifts us. Depression is rampant today. Psychologists say it has become the "common cold" of mental illness. But depression is not new.
Job said, "I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul" (Job. 10:1).
The Psalmist said, "My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?' " (Psa 42:3)
But, hope is always present. David said, "In my alarm I said, 'I am cut off from your sight!' Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help" (Psa. 31:22).
Paul said, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Cor 4:8-9).
God always provides a way out. Dawns follow darkness and resurrections follows crucifixion. David said, "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God . . . ." (Psa. 43:5).
Norman Vincent Peal said, "When I was a boy, a picture on my classroom wall showed a lonely beach with the tide out and a boat stranded on the sand. Few things look more depressing than a boat left high and dry by receding water. But the caption under the picture said, 'Remember, the tide always comes back.' There is ebb and flow in the fortunes of human life. When everything goes against you and it seems you can hold on no longer, never give up. The tide will turn."
Just knowing someone is concerned raises our spirits. A writer tells of having dinner with Bishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize. One of the guests asked the bishop what ordinary citizens could do in the world to promote peace. He gazed into the distance for a moment, then answered in a quiet voice, "You must care! You must care!"
God does care! He hears us when we're depressed.
III. GOD HEARS US WHEN WE'RE WEAK
He supports us. Everyone has weaknesses. Everyone has areas of vulnerability. God has a special concern for the weak. The Psalmist said, " 'Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,' says the Lord. 'I will protect them from those who malign them' " (Psa. 12:5).
"(I) will take pity on the weak and the needy . . . ." (Psa. 72:13).
The Psalmist recognized his need of God. He said, "I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay" (Psa. 40:17).
"When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted" (Psa. 138:3).
Paul even said his weakness was his strength. "I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).
A mother said, "My son Brian was afraid to go into a swimming pool unless I went with him. I couldn't understand why he was so timid. "Why do I have to be with you?" I said to him one day. "The lifeguard is right there. Don't you know that if you get into trouble, he'll save you much quicker than I?"
"But I don't know him, Mommy," Brian answered, clinging to my hand. So I took Brian and introduced him to the lifeguard. The two of them talked, and somehow that gave Brian the security he needed to swim without me."
It's the same with us. We must know God in order to benefit from His presence. Isaiah expresses this principle well: "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak" (Isa. 40:29).
God hears us in our weakness! David said, "In my distress . . . I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears" (Psa. 18:6).
"Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains" (Psa. 54:4).
Our heavenly father is not just a passive recipient of our petitions. But, He's not a "magician" either. Instead, He works slowly and naturally through our own resources, through other people's generosity and through ordinary life circumstances. One woman, who always seemed calm and competent revealed her secret: She had a "God's Business" folder in her desk. Whenever anything happened that she couldn't handle after she had tried her best, she wrote it out on a piece of paper and filed it. Then she quit worrying about it. She said, at the end of each year when she went back over all the items; in almost every case the problems had been satisfactorily solved.
God works with us on an everyday basis, but we're not always aware of the details. As Isaiah aid, " 'My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord" (Isa. 55:8).
Paul also alluded to the comprehensive way God interacts with us. He said, "In him we live and move and have our being . . ." (Acts 17:28).
"From him and through him and to him are all things" (Rom. 11:36).
The Prophet Nahum indicates that knowing God and being known by God is essential. "The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him" (Nahum 1:7, kjv).
Conclusion
A tourist visited the American Military Cemetery in Normandy-the beach where American troops waded ashore into German artillery fire on June 6, 1944 was silent now. There were ten thousand identical white marble crosses. He said, "As I walked down those endless rows of headstones, the name, rank and home state were all that remained of each individual. Their life histories had ended here in Normandy. Living, breathing individuals had been reduced to impersonal markers. I walked on, and stopped in front of a cross that lacked even the distinction of a name. The inscription read, 'Here Rests in Honored Glory, a Comrade in Arms, Known but to God.'
'Known but to God!' Suddenly, I realized that God knew each one of them. He knew them as persons. He knows them now." God knows us; and He hears us!