You and I cannot make contact with God without prayer. If we don’t make that connection, no matter how sincere our intentions, we will not see a change in the circumstances of our life. Pastor and author Dr. Charles Stanley wrote of prayer: “I would say to anybody: the greatest lesson you can learn is to learn to live by faith on your face before God. You can face anything, no matter what it is.”
God said, “I’ll never leave you or forsake you.” But if I’m too busy then I’m not listening to Him, I’m not waiting for Him, I’m not expecting Him to do something. I think people face a lot of circumstances and go through a lot of heartache and trouble that would be unnecessary if they would just stop and listen. Often, I think we are like little children—not so much hard of hearing as we are hard of listening. We hear, but we do not necessarily heed His warnings.
Learning to hear God’s voice from Scripture—learning the way He expressed Himself to the men and women of old—teaches us how to distinguish the sound of His voice from our own and helps us avoid the deceptive whispers of the Enemy. My journey to wholeness in Christ has been painful at times, but it is not an unfamiliar path. I meet people all the time who feel that in order to get God’s attention they must do more, work harder, talk louder, be smarter, but God tells us that in order to hear Him, we must wait and seek and listen closely.
Seeking first the Kingdom and His righteousness leads us to increased faith and less worry. Peace and worry cannot occupy the same space. One forces the other out. Instead of doing more, we must learn to worship at His feet. Our prayer should be, “Help me to wait patiently for the very best You have for my life.” God places watchmen on the walls of our lives. I call them Esthers and Nehemiahs…people such as Corrie ten Boom and, perhaps, people like you. The world has figuratively been scratching its collective head trying to find an answer to the ongoing crises we face. That answer is in your hands and mine…we just have to hear from God, through prayer and intercession.
