{"id":13950,"date":"2013-08-13T01:00:54","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T06:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=13950"},"modified":"2013-08-12T11:17:08","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T16:17:08","slug":"13950","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/08\/13\/13950\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Listening?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I once prayed to God earnestly and tearfully.\u00a0 During my prayer, I felt God answering me; however, I wasn’t finished.\u00a0 I needed Him to hear my entire vent. \u00a0Once I was done, I boldly\u00a0(well, that’s my nice way of saying rebelliously<\/em>) informed God that if His answer was not what I wanted it to be then I wasn’t listening.<\/p>\n

The psalmist wrote, in Psalm 141:1,<\/p>\n

O, Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry! Listen when I cry to you for help.<\/p>\n

We call to God and ask for help.\u00a0 We even ask Him to hurry!\u00a0 Sure, we would love God to answer our prayers just as quickly as we ask.\u00a0 Sometimes He does…sometimes He already has… sometimes<\/span> He does not.\u00a0 Regardless of when God answers, we need to make sure we are listening.<\/p>\n

God’s word clearly says He answers prayers.<\/p>\n

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds;
\nand<\/span> to him who knocks, the door will he opened.
\nMatthew 7:7<\/p>\n

Remember God is a God of hearts.\u00a0 He cares about character more than our comfort.\u00a0 Whenever I ask God if He is listening to me, I always feel Him say:<\/p>\n

“Are you<\/i> listening to me<\/i>?”<\/h3>\n

My earlier story was an extreme example. We don’t often walk around, boldly proclaiming that we aren’t going to listen to God.\u00a0 No, we use more subtle methods.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • God commands us to love, yet, we add conditions to our love and when those conditions aren’t met, well, (we think) that’s not our fault.<\/li>\n
  • God commands us to forgive, yet, we hold “justified” grudges.<\/li>\n
  • God says to be honest, yet, we claim white lies are merciful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    In Luke 5:4-6, Jesus told Peter to let down his nets for a catch, and although Peter and his partners had worked all night and caught nothing, Peter listened to the Lord and his nets were filled.<\/p>\n

    In Luke 18: 21-23, Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything and follow him. “When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.” He listened to the Lord, as well.<\/p>\n

    One was blessed and the other was sad. What’s the difference between these two scenarios? Both men listened to Jesus but differently. Peter listened to Jesus, decided to obey<\/strong> and was blessed. The rich young ruler listened to Jesus, decided to disobey<\/strong>, and was sad.\u00a0 What you do with what you hear is just as important as listening.<\/p>\n

    The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious;
    \nI have not drawn back.
    \nIsaiah 50:5<\/p>\n

    God’s listening. \u00a0Are you<\/em>?<\/h3>\n

    * * * * *<\/p>\n

    Lord, thank You that You speak to us through Your word and through Your spirit…during the quiet<\/span>\u00a0of the night and the roar of the storm. You are faithful. Give us listening ears and obeying hearts and help us to see You.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I once prayed to God earnestly and tearfully.\u00a0 During my prayer, I felt God answering me; however, I wasn’t finished.\u00a0 I needed Him to hear my entire vent. \u00a0Once I was done, I boldly\u00a0(well, that’s my nice way of saying rebelliously) informed God that if His answer was not what I wanted it to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3146,3173,1287,425,3231,3230,3229,3228,3227,3174],"class_list":["post-13950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-ahmee-bronaugh","tag-daily-devotional","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-isaiah-505","tag-luke-1821-23","tag-luke-54-6","tag-matthew-77","tag-psalm-1411","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s39pHp-13950","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13950"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13976,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13950\/revisions\/13976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}