He's Listening! He's Really Listening!

As part of my personal journey during Lent, I went to my bookshelves and pulled down a book I've owned for years but never carefully read. (I have thousands of books that would fall into this category.) The book God led me to is: SEASONS OF PRAYER: Rediscovering Classics Prayers Through the Christian Calendar by Donna Fletcher Crow (Beacon Hill Press, 2000).

Today the chapter I read "The Dark Night of the Soul: Good Friday" resonated deeply. But it is this particular story which Donna tells that so many of us can identify with. Donna is asking her friend, Saundra, who has nine children: What do you do when your baby won't sleep through the night? Saundra's response was:

"I get up with them. You know, you don't really lose that much sleep and sometimes that's the only time I have in the whole day to be alone with that baby and cuddle it. But you can spoil them. I did that with Travis. He was getting me up at 5:30 every morning for a playtime. It was my fault, but he had to suffer for it when it came time that we had to cry it out.

"I lay in the next room listening to him and cried right along with him. But you know, the Lord showed me something really special--Travis didn't know I was in the next room suffering with him, but I was.

“Sometimes I don't know where God is when I have a problem, but He's right in the next room crying with me."

And so must God the Father have cried when His Son was alone on the Cross, abandoned to our sins. But God was faithful.

Easter morning followed Good Friday. Morning sunrise follows the dark of midnight. Springtime flowers burst forth after the coldest winter. God is always faithful. No matter what despair we may experience, we can rely on God's faithfulness (pages 67-68).

And once again God pointed me to His confirmation of this truth in Psalm 22:24-27 New Living Translation):

For he has not ignored the suffering of the needy.
He has not turned and walked away.
He has listened to their cries for help.

The poor will eat and be satisfied.
All who seek the LORD will praise him.
Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.
The whole earth will acknowledge the LORD and return to him.
People from every nation will bow down before him.
For the LORD is king!
He rules all the nations.

“Thank you, Jesus, that you haven’t left us to cry alone. That you do bring deliverance to which we can give public testimony. God, thank you that you come to us in the quiet moments when we are hurting. Because of your compassionate faithfulness, we are assured that you are listening and will come to our rescue."

Keeping A Clear Focus & Steadfast Direction

With the myriad of daily distractions around us, it is easy to lose our way. Our goals become fuzzy, our achievements seem unimportant, and our creativity lags.

Isn't that just like the enemy of our souls to keep us from enthusiastically using the gifts and talents that God has given us. So many times I've heard the words from fellow writers: "What's the use?" "Seems like a waste of time?" "Who's really going to notice or care?"

Do we need a cheerleader team cheering us on? It would seem so or else tweeting, blogging, and facebooking wouldn't have risen to the numbers they have in such a short period of time. Since the beginning of time everyone has asked at one time or another: Does anyone know my name? Does anyone care about what I am doing?

The Good News is that we have a heavenly host of witnesses cheering us on, led by the King of Kings himself. It is to Him that we are accountable for "finishing well the job he gave us to do."

So how do we Keep Clear Focus and Steadfast Direction?

1. Ask: "Ask me and I will tell you some remarkable secrets about what is going to happen here" (Jeremmiah 33:3 TLB).

We all want God to speak to us directly and he is trying to do just that through our inner convictions, visions, or dreams. Most often he speaks through Scripture--leading us exactly to the verses we need to read. Sometimes he speaks through another person, or preaching, or worship.

We must embrace the challenge of struggling with our own life issues and we must take the risks involved in making important decisions that will help us stay on the straight and narrow path designed for us. Ultimately, we have to walk that road by ourselves. (Charles Ringma, Life In Full Stride)

2. Believe: "O Lord God! You have made the heavens and earth by your great power; nothing is too hard for you. You have all wisdom and do great and mighty miracles; for your eyes are open to all the ways of men, and you reward everyone according to his life and deeds" (Jeremiah 32:17,19 TLB).

We must seek God's participation and empowerment for the task. "Activism should not only be sustained by prayer. It also should be born out of prayer. In prayer we listen to God's heartbeat and seek his will. In prayer we commit ourselves to do God's bidding, no matter how difficult or challenging that may be. In prayer we seek the specifics of our action in the world." (Charles Ringma, Seek the Silences with Thomas Merton)

3. Covenant: "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, promising never again to desert them, but only to do them good. I will put a desire into their hearts to worship me, and they shall never leave me" (Jeremiah 32:40 TLB).

What possesions/gifts we have are not simply for ourselves. "All we have comes from God's beneficence. God entrusts these good gifts to us in order that we might worship our Creator and Redeemer, bless those within our sphere of responsibility and care, and share with others, particularly those in need." (Charles Ringma, Whispers from the Edge of Eternity).


The future is not ours. It is God's. But God has called us to freedom. In freedom we can hope, pray, and work in relation to what lies in front of us. Freedom and hope open us to the surprises that will be coming our way from a loving God who only wants the best for us.