Did you hear that?

It happened again yesterday. Susie asked if I heard the phone ringing; I didn’t. A few seconds later I heard it ring. The same thing has happened with the kids. She will ask if I hear someone calling, or worse crying; I don’t. Then after straining to hear it turns out that she is right. I can’t be getting old can I? I think it’s just a case of selective hearing; I’m just tuned into to something else and have to change channels to hear what Susie heard. That’s it isn’t it; I mean I do eventually hear it too?

Did you know that God has ‘selective hearing’ too? Amazing as it may sound to us, the fact is that God does not listen to every prayer. Think about this. God is omniscient; He is all knowing. Therefore, God knows the words of every prayer even before we say the first word; nothing is hidden from God’s knowledge. Nevertheless the Lord chooses not to hear some prayers because of something else He knows about us.

• [1] Listen! The Lord is not too weak to save you, and he is not becoming deaf. He can hear you when you call. [2] But there is a problem—your sins have cut you off from God. Because of your sin, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.
  Isaiah 59:1-2 (NLT)

God also knows about our sin; He knows the condition of our heart that stands up with selfish pride and secretly says, “I can do it myself.” God knows all about our rebellion and secret sin that we try to hide from others. Because of our sin God turns a deaf ear to our prayers.

Notice Isaiah is not talking about the ‘prayers’ of the heathen; it is not the prayers of those who have never confessed God as Savior that He does not hear. Rather it is the prayer of God’s people that God turns His back on. In other words it is those who should know better but have turned their backs on God through willful disobedience and then blame God for not coming to their rescue when they cry out for help.

God’s people have experience the wonder of His salvation; God has come to their rescue. Unfortunately we sometimes get caught up in sin again. In those times God has not become weak and unable to save us. God holds back His hand of salvation because of our secret sin that we are unwilling to let go of.

God knows all about your situation, but is He listening to your prayer? Could it be that before the Lord again reaches out His hand to come to our rescue that He is waiting to hear an honest prayer, a humble prayer of repentance? That is a prayer God will hear every time, but are we ready to pray it?