Is God Listening?

Posted On March 28, 2021

“O God, listen to my cry!
Hear my prayer!”

Psalm 61:1 NLT

Sometimes we think God isn’t listening. We cry out to Him and wait for Him to answer our prayers, and nothing happens. What’s going on? Probably the first thing we worry about when we feel abandoned by God is that we did something wrong and He is angry with us. As Rick Warren points out in The Purpose Driven Life, unconfessed sin does keep us from having the intimate relationship with God that He desires, but often the reason God seems distant has nothing to do with sin: “It is a test of faith — one we all must face: Will you continue to love, trust, obey, and worship God, even when you have no sense of his presence or visible evidence of his work in your life?”

Why would He test us like this? I have wondered about that. When I felt like my life was falling apart even though I was doing what God led me to do, I began to question everything. Did God care? Did I misunderstand His leading? Did He even exist? Then I realized that faith, like love, is not just something you feel. It is something you do. It has to be cultivated. I had to choose to have faith every day, whether I felt it or not. I had to reach out to God, even if I didn’t sense His presence, and ask Him to guide me. I had to make a habit of spending time in prayer and in His Word and listening for His voice. Basically, like any other skill, I had to practice faith to get better at it. And it worked. Soon what had been a struggle came naturally. Then I realized that the reason He tests us is so that we can grow.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

James 1:2-4 NIV

“You can talk to God because God listens. Your voice matters in heaven. He takes you very seriously. When you enter his presence, he turns to you to hear your voice. No need to fear that you will be ignored. Even if you stammer or stumble, even if what you have to say impresses no one, it impresses God, and he listens. . . .
God listens. Intently. Carefully.”

Max Lucado, Grace for the Moment

God listens. Even if we don’t sense His presence or hear His voice, He hears ours. He wants us to come to Him in prayer. He wants us to obey what He has already told us to do. He wants us to keep choosing faith every day. I have mentioned the following quote before, but it is worth repeating here. In The Screwtape Letters C. S. Lewis writes a series of letters from the point of view of a demon named Screwtape instructing another demon named Wormwood how to turn humans against God, Whom the demons refer to as the “Enemy.” In the passage below, Screwtape explains the power of faith:

“Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.“

C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“Paul trusted the oversight of God. He didn’t know why bad things happened. He didn’t know how they would be resolved. But he knew who was in charge.”

Max Lucado, Every Day Deserves a Chance

Maybe it’s not silence we feel from God — maybe it’s adversity. We try to seek God and obey Him, but instead of life getting easier, it gets harder. We try to make sense of it but we can’t. We don’t understand. We cry out to God, but our circumstances don’t change . . . it breaks us. Why doesn’t He fix it? Charles F. Stanley gives us some insight:

“Perhaps you thought that life would get easier if you accepted Christ as your Savior, but you’ve found just the opposite to be true. Now you have to deal with the troubles that the world throws at you, and you also feel responsible to honor God in how you respond to them. Somewhere inside of you, you’ve come to the realization that you’re just not strong enough to live the holy life that Christ has called you to. Good! God never meant you to live the Christian life by your own resources. The trials that you’ve been experiencing are part of the breaking process, whereby God frees you from your self-sufficiency so that you’ll allow Christ to live in and through you. . . . Brokenness is God’s requirement for maximum usefulness. It’s through brokenness that you stop depending on yourself and start looking to Him for your strength, wisdom, and power.”

Charles F. Stanley, 30 Life Principles

I have felt this way. I have felt broken, and I wondered why God didn’t make everything all right. I didn’t understand why He let me suffer. Eventually, there was nothing that would help me feel better — except Him. And that was the point. I had no choice but to go to God for comfort and strength. I had to let go of everything in the world I had been relying on to make me feel secure and happy, and I had to cling to Him instead.

He is the only One we can put our complete faith and trust in. He is the only real security we have in this broken world. I had to let myself be broken so that He could build me back up, stronger than before. I am still a work in progress, but through my trials God has taught me what I consider the most important lesson of all: I need Him. I can’t do this on my own. I have to hold on to Him and let Him guide me every day. This is how transformation happens. When we break our hold on the world, we are free to embrace Christ and become more like Him. And then we are better equipped to do His work.

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad — for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. . . . it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name!”

1 Peter 4:12-13,16 NLT

“Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 NLT

So what do we do when we’re facing hardships and we feel abandoned by God? We keep praying. We never stop. We focus on our blessings and we give thanks. In The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren says:

• “Tell God exactly how you feel. Pour out your heart to God. Unload every emotion that you’re feeling.”
• “Focus on who God is — his unchanging nature. . . . Remind yourself what you know to be eternally true about God: He is good, he loves me, he is with me, he knows what I’m going through, he cares, and he has a good plan for my life.”
• “Trust God to keep his promises. During times of spiritual dryness you must patiently rely on the promises of God, not your emotions, and realize that he is taking you to a deeper level of maturity. . . . When you feel abandoned by God yet continue to trust him in spite of your feelings, you worship him in the deepest way.”
• “Remember what God has already done for you. If God never did anything else for you, he would still deserve your continual praise for the rest of your life because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. God’s Son died for you! This is the greatest reason for worship. . . . Jesus gave up everything so you could have everything. He died so you could live forever. That alone is worthy of your continual thanks and praise. Never again should you wonder what you have to be thankful for.”

Gratitude is hard, especially when life is hard. It doesn’t come naturally. We have to work at it. We have to make a conscious effort every day to focus on our blessings and on God’s goodness. We have to learn to see the glass half full instead of half empty. Like faith, we have to practice. The more we practice being thankful, the easier it will become. And the payoff is huge because gratitude leads to joy. And when we are full of gratitude and joy, our problems don’t seem so big.

“Gratitude is a new window you can use to see the world. You may peer out and see the same old life, same old circumstances, and same old struggles. But among them, now you also see something good. Something hopeful. Something praiseworthy. Something to be thankful for.”

The Weekly Gratitude Project

This week’s Scripture passages remind us that when we call out to God, He listens. Even when we don’t feel His presence, He is there. Even when we don’t understand our circumstances, He is working through them for our good. We have to have faith, give thanks, and persevere. We never know when a miracle may be just around the corner!

“The God of surprises strikes again. . . . God does that for the faithful.
Just when the womb gets too old for babies, Sarai gets pregnant.
Just when the failure is too great for grace, David is pardoned. . . .
The lesson? Three words. Don’t give up. . . .
Is the road long? Don’t stop.
Is the night black? Don’t quit.
God is watching. For all you know right at this moment . . . the check may be in the mail. The apology may be in the making. The job contract may be on the desk.
Don’t quit. For if you do, you may miss the answer to your prayers.”

Max Lucado, Grace for the Moment

References:

• Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters & Screwtape Proposes a Toast. The Macmillan Company, 1971.
• Lucado, Max. Every Day Deserves a Chance: Wake Up to the Gift of 24 Hours. Thomas Nelson, 2007.
• Lucado, Max. Grace for the Moment: Inspirational Thoughts for Each Day of the Year. J. Countryman, 2000.
• Stanley, Charles F. 30 Life Principles Study Guide: A Study for Growing in Knowledge and Understanding of God. Thomas Nelson, 2008.
• Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Zondervan, 2002.
• The Weekly Gratitude Project: A Challenge to Journal, Reflect, and Grow a Grateful Heart. Zondervan, 2020.

Images:

• Antique Phone featured image by PDPics from Pixabay
• Telephone Handsets image by Alexandra ❤️A life without animals is not worth living❤️ from Pixabay
• Antique Phone (black & white) image by Alexandra ❤️A life without animals is not worth living❤️ from Pixabay
• Broken Phone image by Asif Ikbal Bhuiya from Pixabay
• Sunset Picture image by Tommy_Rau from Pixabay
• Phone Booth image by TeeFarm from Pixabay