Which comes first: sound or the ability to hear? This sounds like the “chick & egg” question that is unanswerable. A question that may have an answer is: “Is God listening before we speak, or do our prayers attract God’s attention?”
Jane E. Vennard addresses this question in her book entitled A Praying Congregation (Herndon, Virginia: Alban Institute, 2005, p. 37).
“A student of mine shared that he believed that all prayer begins with God. This was a totally new idea for me. I had always held the belief that prayer was up to me. I had to initiate the communication; I had to go to God; I had to get God’s attention. Considering that God was the initiator of the prayer relationship turned everything upside down. God was already present. God was waiting for me to respond to God’s invitation.”
God is poised, always ready to listen to what we say . . . like a parent waiting for her/his child to tell of the day’s adventures. God is often more ready to listen than we are to speak. God never grow weary of us praying. In fact, God pursues us to be with us wherever we are. Psalm 139 has some of the following verses:
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end£—I am still with you.
The psalmist reminds us that even when we reach the end of our lives, we are still with God . . . because we are that important to God. We need to rejoice.
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