Never Too Busy

Are things busy at your house or workplace? Imagine how in must be at Celestial Control Central:

“Good morning, Gabriel. Let’s go over what’s on the old schedule for today.”

“Yes, Sir. We’ve got a hurricane brewing in the Carribean, set to hit Haiti with 100-miles-an-hour winds at sunset. Mount Keemakeetoa in Indonesia is going to start belching smoke today and shake a little, but the big eruption is on Friday.”

“What about human activity?”

“As You know, sir, the Middle East is still a hot spot, along with Northern Ireland and Eastern Europe. That counter-revolutionary group in Peru is planning a strike against Lima in a few days. Beyond those, we have the usual bombings, murders, drunk drivers, plane crashes, and sinking ships.”

“Hmm.”

“Plus hypocrisies, fallings from grace, heresies, factions, and the common sins of the flesh.”

“Crowded schedule. Review the positive side for Us.”

“There’s a big evangelistic effort going on in Caracas, Venezuela, today. Dozens are hearing the gospel for the first time. A Mrs. Dunlap is having lunch with her neighbor that until today had not spoken to her in 15 years. Two scholars are putting the final touches on a book that will convince hearts and minds of the authority and inspiration of the Scriptures. And those 37 couples in San Bernadino—”

“Excuse me, Gabriel, but Katrina McGee is about to pray. It will only take a few minutes. Then we can finish our meeting.”

“No problem. First things first.” Gabriel leans back to wait.

The Apostle Peter knew God’s heart when he quoted Ps. 34:16:

    “… the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer.…” (1 Peter 3:12).

Since He’s never too busy to listen, and puts no one on hold, let’s pour out our hearts to Him every day.

—Steve Singleton
DeeperStudy.com

Want to go deeper?

The Greek noun ous ("ear") or the plural "ears" is ascribed to God twice in the New Testament: 1 Peter 3:12, a quotation of Ps. 34:15, and James 5:4, in which James warns greedy oppressors, "The cries of the harvesters [you have cheated] have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty."

Speaking of God's ear or ears is much more common in the Hebrew Scriptures, where they are mentioned in the third person in passages like 2 Sam. 22:7; Ps. 22:7; and Ps. 34:15 (quoted in 1 Peter). They occur in contexts using the second person ("You" and "Your") in passages like 2 Kings 19:28; 2 Chron. 6:40; Neh. 1:11; Ps. 31:2; 71:2; 88:2; 102:2; 130:2; and Lam. 3:56. The expression "give ear," "incline thine ear," or literally, "stretch out your ear" as addressed to God, occurs in passages like 2 Kings 19:16; Ps. 17:6; Isa. 37:17; and Dan. 9:18. All of these texts are speaking either of prayer or of God's awareness of what is happening among the people of the earth.

We should not suppose that God has literal ears because of these texts, any more than that He has literal nostrils because of references like Exod. 15:8; 2 Sam. 22:16; or Ps. 18:8, or other body parts: His hands, finger, eyes, and feet (e.g., Isa. 65:2; 1 Kings 8:29; Ps. 8:6; etc.). God is spirit (John 4:24); He is invisible (1 Tim. 1:17), immaterial and incorporeal. All of these references to body parts are what scholars call "anthropomorphisms," ascribing human attributes to deity as a way of attempting to "make God real and to express His various interests, powers, and activities" (p. 120 in Henry Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology Eerdmans, 1949).

In other words, referring to God's ear or ears is a way of saying that He listens to us. He pays attention to what we are saying, to our desperate cries for help, our petitions, and even our intercessions. He hears our thanksgivings and our praises. He also hears our curses, our complaints, and our lies, and our gossip and slander. The Father's "ears" are attuned to the voices of His children.

hunter_hearsRecommended to purchase:

W. B. Hunter. The God Who Hears (1986).

Prayer's true aim is intimacy with God. We pray effectively when we make Him the desire of our hearts. Hunter directs us to the nature and attributes of God and to our own lives. God responds, not to our prayers but to who we are, what we think, feel, will, and do. Prayer is communication from whole persons to the Wholeness that is the living God.

Hunter is academic dean and senior vice president of education at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School at Trinity International University. He handles tricky issues with warmth and insight, offering scriptural answers to practical concerns such as the role of fasting, obedience, and persistence. His aim is that we draw near to God.

Recommended for online reading:

C. H. Spurgeon. "The Golden Key of Prayer," sermon #619 in his Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, first preached in 1865.