"God Hears Us"

GOOD MORNING!

"I love the LORD, because He hears My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live." Psalm 116:1–2 [NLT]

Psalm 116 is the lament of a man surrounded by grief and sorrow. The first line of the psalmist’s song expresses his deepest affection for the Lord. He writes, "I love the LORD, because . . . He hears My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me..." These are two distinct responses, not one and the same. The first, "He hears," simply means that when the psalmist speaks, God listens; God pays attention to what he has to say. The second, "He inclines," is from the Hebrew natah, meaning "to bend, turn aside." It implies interest, as when someone turns to face you, stops doing something to give you undivided attention, or leans closer to hear what you have to say. The psalmist says that he loves the Lord because God "bends down," as it were, and "turns aside" from His infinite work . . . as He pays close attention to him in his sorrow and grief. God never turns His back on those who cry out to Him through tears. When God seems farthest away, He actually "bends closer."

Battling with the question of “why pray? What is the use?" Be assured, God hears and listens to our prayers.

We can hear what someone is saying, without ever identifying with what is being said because we are not listening. We can fail to grasp the deeper content of what they are expressing, because we hear them but we are not listening to them. But not so with God. God not only hears our words, God is always listening to our hearts. He listens carefully. "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer..." [I Peter 3:12]. When we pray, God bends down to listen. True!

Much love and care,

Pastor Pat

Greece Assembly of God

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