15th June

“I love the Lord because He hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath.”

Psalm 116:1-2

God talks to us in many ways, through His Word in written form (the Bible), through His voice, through creation, through prophetic words, and through dreams and visions. These are to name just a few. However our primary source of communicating with God is through prayer. God sent Jesus for that very reason. He wanted to have an intimate and personal relationship with each of His creations. Yet so often we can feel as if we are talking into thin air when we pray or feel discouraged that we might not hear an answer.

Yet God always hears what we have to say. His ears are always attentive to our voice. In fact He loves listening to us. What father when his child speaks would choose to ignore him? What husband when his wife shares her heart would turn away? Our walk with Christ is so relational. He wants to have a loving and fruitful relationship with us. David rightly says in today’s Psalm, that God “hears my voice and my prayer for mercy”. God hears our voice: Period. Furthermore, He even hears our groans and pleas for mercy. Even when we have no hope, or even no words to say, the Spirit intercedes for us and He even prays with us with “groans that cannot be expressed in words” (Romans 8:26).

Yet the highlight or crescendo or today’s verse is found in verse 2, “He bends down to listen”. This is the God we serve. Not a far away god that is not interested in what we have to say. Not a god where we have to earn his attention. We serve a God who bends down to listen to our prayers. This pictorial depiction of God’s loving nature is so deep and intimate. God wants to hear our voice. Do you want to hear His?