If we knew He was listening…

If we knew He was listening, I wonder how it would change our lives.

I’m so excited tonight and tomorrow to teach 1 Peter 3:8-22.  One of the tiny little nuggets tucked into this passage is a quote from Psalm 34:12-16. Peter writes (v.12) “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.”  It could also be translated “attentive” to their prayer.  The first week of our “letter lessons” we taught Dutch the word “attentive” in order to learn the letter A. He learned that Attentive means Look, listen, and respond (3-year-old definition).  That is exactly what this passage tells us about God. He is not only listening to us, He’s looking at us. He’s watching us, with open ears, attentive to our prayers.  Do we believe this?

I remember the very first day of my Prayer class at Multnomah, our professor chose two volunteers to tell about their Christmas break. The first was a shy, quiet, timid girl.  Our professor pulled up a stool, sat down across from her, looked her in the eye, leaned toward her, and listened.  She began slowly, and he nodded as she spoke, use verbal listening cues, laughed at the funny parts, smiled, eyes on her constantly, intently listening. She went on and on, her face flushed at the joy of really being listened to.  When she was done she beamed.

Next he picked Jeff  (who he knew could handle some abuse :).  Jeff began and immediately the professor got up and went and looked at his teaching notes, completely turning his back on Jeff.  He rustled through some papers, cleared his throat, looked at Jeff impatiently, looked at his watch, fidgeted, glanced up at the clock. Jeff tried to persevere (since he knew what he was doing), but eventually he couldn’t take it any more. “I quit,” Jeff finally resigned, “you’re not even listening.”

I think we’ve all been in that awkward and kind of embarassing situation (or maybe it’s just me!) when we’re talking in a group and somehow everyone gets distracted doing something and next thing you know you’re telling a story to no one.  Unless you’re really determined, you usually just quit talking, right? I mean, what’s the point if no one’s listening?

My professor’s point was that many of us don’t really believe that God is listening.  We might say that we do, but we don’t really operate under that conviction.  Many of us feel like God is like that  professor who’s checking the clock, fidgeting. As if we have to shout and beg for Him to listen.  Why would we want to pray if we view God like that?

Meditating on this verse this week has impacted me immensely. This morning we had our first every Morning Prayer, from 6-7am at church. It was awesome. Just 5 of us, gathered together in the early morning light, confident that “the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.”  I realized this morning that God was waiting for us.  He was up long before we were (since He never sleeps!), and He was bent, stooped over, with His ear down to us, waiting for us just to mutter a word to Him, waiting for us to lift up our voices, praise, confession, thanks, and requests to Him.  How this changes the way we pray!  When I realize God is just waiting for me to speak, to pray, to ask, it changes everything.  It was a joy this morning to sit with Him, knowing He was waiting for us all along.

If we knew God was listening, I wonder how much more we might pray. I wonder what we might ask. I wonder what we might dare mention to Him.  I wonder how we might pour out our hearts to Him, knowing He was sitting there, eyes on us, soaking up every word.  Thank you, Lord that Your ears are open to us.  Show us how to pray.