He Hears You

“But truly God has listened; He has attended to the voice of my prayer.” Psalm 66:19

Dear friend, God is listening to you; He hears your prayers in real time. 

I don’t know if it’s you, me, the friend that I am meeting for coffee this morning, the family member that you are joining for dinner tonight, or the person on the other end of the text that you are about to send right now, but someone needs to hear this today. 

You are heard. 

I remember when I was growing up, and honestly still on occasion up to this day, I would say something to my mom that didn’t really require an immediate verbal response. More often than not, it was more of a conversational piece or disconnected thoughts than it was a question, and if it was a question, it was a question that she had already answered many times like, “Can I go to _____’s house now?”, but this time I flooded it with reasoning of my own. Whatever the case, after giving her a few seconds to acknowledge what I had said, only to be met with silence, I would say, “Mom! Are you even listening?!” 

She was listening. In fact, sometimes I would even quiz her in asking, “What was the last word that I said?” She knew. Every single time, she knew. 

So many times, we want something as direct as a verbal response from God. We look for Him to answer our prayer in the exact way in which we hope to see it answered, at the exact time that we expect to have it answered. Just as with my mom, we want to scream, “God! Are you even listening?” 

Lucky for us, we get a clear answer directly from the Word of God on that one; an answer that should bring great peace to the tension. 

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are attentive to their cry; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:15-18)

“The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous” (Proverbs 15:29).

After the healing of the boy that was born blind, it is said, “We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does His will” (John 9:31).

John, the apostle, wraps up his letter to the church in saying, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5:13-15).  

If put to the last word test, I believe that God could tell you the last word to every sentence that you have ever spoken. 

Sometimes our cries don’t require a direct response, but simply the comforting presence of our Father. Sometimes we are so busy looking for the response we want that we miss the response that we get. Sometimes the answer is not yet, and in the times that the answers seems to be “no”, we can trust that it is because the Lord sees the days that lie ahead, and He knows what is best for His child. 

As I read back through these scriptures, I see…

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous…”

“The righteous cry out…” 

“…He hears the prayers of the righteous.”

“He listens to the godly person who does His will.”

And John, in writing to “you who believe” says, “that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” 

What would it look like for us to gather all of the time that we spend worrying about God’s ability to hear and the time we spend actively looking for the one response that we desire, and reroute that time into our path of righteousness. In the scriptures above, every word of “He hears” is connected to righteousness, or doing things God’s way.

Friend, I want to challenge you to more greatly pursue doing things God’s way while you wait. As you spend time in His presence and in His Word, your requests will more greatly align with His will as you continue on in this journey of life with Christ. Trust that He hears your cries, your words, your rejoicing, your requests, your hurts and your pains, and instead of being stagnant in the waiting, focus your heart on more greatly pursuing your Father in heaven. 

Know that every prayer that you pray is an opportunity for you to display a greater trust in Jesus as the Lord of your life. 

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus” (TPT).

Present your prayers to God and then, knowing that He has heard you, allow the peace, His peace, that surpasses understanding aide you in your walk closer to Him as you wait. 

The psalmist of our initial scripture says, “He has attended to the voice of my prayer” (Psalm 66:19). God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Writer of this story, the Artist of every sunset sky, has attended to the voice of your prayer. He hears you. Rest in that today.