Jump Start # 1786

Psalms 116:1 “I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications.”

Some nights when I go to bed I have a hard time turning off my mind. The thoughts are running fast, even though my body is tired. When that happens, I lay in bed and just listen. Once in a while, not very often, I will hear the faint “hoot, hoot” of an owl. I like hearing that at night. Something very odd happened the other night. I was in bed, my mind was re-preaching my sermon and I listened for the owl. Nothing. In fact, it was the first time I think that I heard total silence. In the night, the furnace runs. If there is a breeze, I can hear the wind chimes. I can hear our cat up and down, eating food or purring. If the wind is blowing from the right direction, on some nights, you can hear in coming airplanes. And if the wind is right, you can sometimes faintly hear traffic from the highway. On this night, nothing. No wind chimes. The furnace was not kicking on and off. No planes. No cars. Not even the cat was making noise. I listened for a long time. Silence. Nothing. It is so rare in our times to hear “nothing.” There’s always a clock ticking, the noise of your cell phone receiving a text, traffic, even the wind. Some go to sleep with the sound of a fan on. Some fall asleep with the TV on. But silence? No sound. Absolute stillness. Completely quiet. That was amazing. It’s rare. It made me think of God and prayer.

Our verse today reminds us of one of many reasons why we love God. His goodness, generosity, love, forgiving nature and desire for us to be with Him top the list. The Psalmist reminds us that God hears our voice. He wants to hear us. I love the Lord because He hears my voice.

What a blessing it is to be able to not just talk to God, but to pour our hearts out to one who understands and can do something about things. You can tell a friend about your troubles, but they may have so many of their own troubles that they won’t listen or even if they do listen, they may not be able to do anything about it. God can.

Not only is it a blessing to talk to God, you can do that anywhere. One doesn’t have to run to the Temple, the church building or find another person to do this. The tearing of the Temple’s curtain when Jesus died, symbolized that there was no longer a separation between man and God. It meant that anyone, not just the priest, could have access to God. It meant that one could approach God, not just on specific holy days, but every day. The high priest was only allowed to go beyond the temple curtain on specific days. He couldn’t just go when he felt like it. Now, anyone, anytime could approach God. What a blessing that is. That means, when I am driving down the road, I can pray. I recommend you keep your eyes open when you do that. When you are awaiting surgery, you can pray. When you are sitting in a funeral home, you can pray. When you are alone, you can pray. There is no place that prayer is inappropriate.

Praying to God reminds us that we are not in control of things and that we are dependent upon Him. We need God. We need God’s help. We can’t do it alone. Praying helps us to see that.

Prayer has a way of getting our vision and perspective adjusted. We tend to see things too much through our experiences and our feelings. We can sometimes get a bit too much of us in us. Copernicus proved that we are not the center of the universe nor does the world revolve around us. You’d never know that the way some talk. It’s all about them. It’s all about how they feel. Me. Me. Me. Praying fixes that. It lets us see how big the world is and that indeed this is my Father’s world. It’s not my world, but His world. It is His plans, not my plans. It is His will, not my will. Prayer is not getting God to do things for me, but getting me to do His will. His will in my life is what this is about.

I love God because He hears my prayer. Now, back to silence. Total silence. I wonder if that’s what God hears too often. We are down here, rushing through our lives, too busy to be thankful, too worried to reach out to Him, and too consumed with self, to see that we need Him. He’s right there. But all He hears is silence. Total silence. Why aren’t they praying to Me? Why are they reaching up to Me?

It makes a person wonder, doesn’t it. It makes us wonder if God says, “Roger, why are you not talking to me today?” Or, “Why didn’t you seek My help on this, rather than get all upset about it?” Or, “Why didn’t you stop and thank Me for this? I did this just for you?” But instead, silence. Total silence.

Silence. I wonder if there is too much silence between us and God. The other night, when I heard nothing, I started thinking about that. That led to a prayer. It reminded me that He doesn’t want me to be silent with Him.

Prayer, it’s amazing, if you will but pray. Break the silence and fill the Heavens with your voice of prayer and thanksgiving.

Roger