Psalm 34:15 “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.”
The Lord has blessed my wife and I with many grandchildren. It seems every Christmas we have another baby that arrived that year, another 2 year old just learning to walk, and a couple more 3 year olds tearing through the house at dawn waking everyone up. It is not uncommon to look down and see little arms reaching up, imploring me to hold them.
As a grandfather, the sweet innocence of grandchildren is a blessing to behold, no matter how I feel, how tired I might be, or if I’m not at 100 percent, I can’t resist picking that little one up in my arms and cuddling them.
How much more does our Heavenly Father love us?
When we call out to the Lord, His Word makes it clear how He responds…
Psalm 116:2 “Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.”
The Hebrew word for “inclined” is the act of bending down, and as in the case of the Psalms, we see the Lord bending down to us, hearing our cries.
Psalm 40:1 “I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry.”
Do you ever feel that God isn’t listening to you? Do you ever question whether God cares about your circumstances? Well, if you do, you are not alone. When we find ourselves going through the trials, it’s easy to question whether God even cares about us.
Who am I that God would take notice of me? I’m not a perfect christian, I might have missed a couple Bible readings this week or let my tongue slip during an argument. If God were so temperamental that every mistake affected our relationship to Him, then He would be considered unloving, harsh, or lacking understanding. But God does understand us, He is extremely patient, His love abounds over you, and He does not shift like the sand.
When God’s people cry out….He intentionally hears them.
Psalm 66:19 “But God has surely heard; He has attended to the sound of my prayer.”
I may bring up this subject too much, but I feel it is worth revisiting. There is not a soul dead or alive who hasn’t been affected by the corruption of this world. Everyone has suffered to a certain degree, everyone has experienced a form of loss, and if a person feels like they have been spared such trouble, it is only a matter of time before they experience it themselves.
When trouble comes, how do you respond?
Do you despair? Do you want to give up? Do you strive to remove yourself from the trial or do you resolve that you must somehow deserve it?
Some people will get angry, others grow quiet in grief. For those who look to the Lord as the source of their strength, they find that He was always there, waiting for you to call out.
Psalm 145:18 “The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call out to Him in truth.”
Do you believe His promises?
When God responds, we witness another act of His mercy and grace….
Isaiah 65:24 “Even before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear.”
I love to read the reminders of how God responds to our circumstances. God doesn’t sit back on His throne, waiting for a cry to rise up to His ears, He is always listening and He knows what is on your heart before you even mention it to Him. Just like a grandfather who listens to his grandchildren battle through their mistakes, he waits to see how they handle their circumstances. When they get to the point where they feel it’s too much, and the little arms raise up for comfort, the heart of a grandfather bends down and takes them up to comfort them.
Hosea 11:3-4 “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms, but they never realized that it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with ropes of love; I lifted the yoke from their necks and bent down to feed them.”
As much as I love my grandchildren, our Heavenly Father loves us far more. The magnitude of God’s great love has been proven time and time again. He is intimately acquainted with all our ways, and He is involved in our circumstances when as yet we comprehend them.
The Lord loves you. If you call Him your Father, if you walk with Him as a son or daughter of the King, you are His. He is intentional in His love and He has a purpose in all He does.
As the prophet Hosea reminded the children of Israel, the Lord not only comforts, but He feeds His people, He nourishes them, and when your life seems to become too difficult, He lifts the yoke and brings times of refreshing.
Turn your eyes up, look to the One who knows you, and cry out to Him before you turn anywhere else.
You will find that His love is enough for you.
U.T. 