Be Still

Father, Lord Jesus, why you never answer my prayers?

That's exactly what Adrienne was bemoaning with frustrations. She recalled how she prayed and prayed and was down on her knees until they were blistered and swollen. Yet, she claimed that her heavenly Father in Christ Jesus did not answered her. She had so many questions for answers to improve her earthly life. She needed answers to help her repentance.

When Adrienne shared with me her frustrations, I answered her that maybe Jesus did answered her without her realizing it. "How could it be?", she asked with exasperation.

I explained to her that very often we spent a long time telling our Father Saviour about our problems but never spent time quietly listening to Him. We prayed but once finished, we never sat quietly to hear what He has got to tell us. So, how can He ever get His opportunity to speak and reply us? He sat quietly listening to our prayers, but as soon as we finished praying, we never spent any time at all listening to Him. He wanted to answer us, but how could He when you are not staying back to hear Him?

And we ended up misunderstanding our Father Saviour that perhaps He is not interested in our prayers. Perhaps because of our sins, He's ignoring us. But how could a Perfect Father ignore us? He loved us!

When we spent an hour pouring out our hearts content to Him, we should spent maybe two hours listening to our Saviour. He is our Counselor, Teacher, Advisor, Guide, Comforter, Guardian, and He have all the answers for our life. In fact, we should spent more time listening than talking.

I guessed it's because the Church has always asked us to pray but rarely asked us to spent time listening. If you have a problem to share with your earthly father, after sharing, won't you spent time listening to his thoughts? If not, how would you ever know what are his answers for your questions?

The trouble with most of us is we enjoy talking but are impatient when listening. And how can we make stride when we failed to be attentive listening to our heavenly Father?

And how do we listen?

Be Still!