Does God Hear Me?

Clean up your room, please.

Finish your schoolwork before dinner. We’re having your favorite—steak!

Have you brushed your teeth? I’d hate for you to get a cavity.

Eat your vegetables . . . or no dessert.

My children have selective hearing. A request, a question, a command, they hear none of these. Over the years, I have tried different tactics in order to be heard: kindness, bribery, future threats, immediate threats. To be honest, some of them work but not consistently. For the love of my sanity, I just want my children to hear me and respond to my request. Instead, I feel ignored, rejected, unseen, insignificant.

I have been asking God for something for several years now. This “something” would bring glory to God. I ask unselfishly, on behalf of a loved one. I beg and plead with God. I fast and pray. I ask others to pray with me.

I try the same tactics on God in order to be heard. I ask in kindness: God, please answer me. I try out bribery: God, if You answer me in this way, I will do anything You ask. I point out future threats: God, if You answer me, this terrible thing can be avoided. I throw my own immediate demise out there: God, if You don’t answer me, I think I might die. Does God hear me?

I feel ignored, rejected, unseen, insignificant. Have you been there? Are you there now? Maybe you’re praying for a job or a way out of a financial crisis. Maybe you’re praying for reconciliation in a relationship. Maybe you’re praying for healing in a loved one’s body. Maybe you’re praying for your womb to be filled with new life. Maybe you’re praying for a friend or family member to draw close to God.

I am still praying for that “something.” God has not answered me . . . at least not in any way that I can tell. Even when I offer my own solutions to the issue, He does not follow my advice. (Crazy, right?)

If you find yourself where I am, may I offer you some encouragement? Here is the truth that I cling to, the truth that keeps me coming to God with my request again and again.

My feelings are big, fat liars. Just because I feel ignored . . . or rejected . . . or unseen . . . or insignificant does not mean that I am ignored or rejected or unseen or insignificant.

Here, the people of Israel present an example of how to plead with God when in a desperate situation. In the 12 verses surrounding and including verse 4 (Isaiah 64:1-12), they confess their sins and submit to God’s authority and sovereignty. They throw themselves on God’s mercy and beg God to show up, to surprise them with His power. They had seen God show up in the past and trusted God to do it again.

Have you seen God show up in the past? I have. Over and over and over. And now I am ready and waiting expectantly for God to completely blow me away with His power, as only God can. So, even when I feel ignored or rejected or unseen or insignificant—when I cannot see how God could possibly salvage my situation—I know God hears me and I choose to trust in Him, the One Who works on my behalf as I wait. My feelings are big, fat liars, but God is the Truth.