The God who listens to His people (contd)                                                                                                    

Meditation 3 - The God who hears desire

Did you know your desires make a sound in heaven?

Psalm 10:17 You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you strengthen their heart, and you listen to their cry[1]

What is wonderful about this attribute:

We might have expected it to say that God knows our desires – but it says He hears them. Every desire in your heart makes a noise in heaven. Every time you want something, that wanting is something God hears in heaven. God inclines His gracious, favorable, loving ear to all your desires. This is not to imply that prayer is unnecessary. The fact that God is attending to you does not mean you should fail to attend to Him. But oh, what a blessed truth that His great heart is moved by your desires when you are in trouble.

Words are not prayer – they are just the garments of prayer. Desire is the heart and soul of prayer. As the body without the soul is dead, so is a prayer not driven by desire. God attends not to the words but the desires, as prayer is not prayer unless animated by desire. We pray only when we are aware of God’s presence and are interacting with Him. Words are of invaluable assistance to the soul in that activity, but they are not the activity itself. We can spew forth a million words without a single prayer actually taking place. True prayer is the expression of a genuine desire. At a loss to know what to pray? Pour out your heart to God. Come to Him with your deepest desires. Don’t just pray for the things you think are most important, but seek to make those things your greatest desire so your prayers are real prayers.

Oh Lord, let all the desires You hear from my heart be righteous desires. And let my righteous desires be powerful.

It is especially the desires of the afflicted that God hears. That means the more afflicted you are the more attentive God is to your desires.

If the Lord hears the desires of the afflicted as prayers it stands to reason that He hears evil desires as well – not that He inclines a favorable ear toward evil desires, but that He hears them.

The primary idea of this verse, however, is that God inclines His gracious, favorable, loving ear to all our non-sinful desires. God already knows all things, yet right now He is straining His ears to listen to your desires for relief – not to gain information, but just because that is the activity of love.

And the effect of God’s attention is the strengthening of your heart. All the strength you have enjoyed has come from Him. When you have been able to whether disappointments, criticisms, humiliations, losses, attacks – all of those would have destroyed you had it not been for God’s strengthening love. What a treasure is a strengthened, established heart!

Forgive me, dear Lord, for taking it for granted when I am strong. Forgive me for imagining it was a strength of my own. Thank You for the strength I have right now. My ability to endure the things I’m now enduring is the direct strengthening work of Your blessed hand on my heart right at this moment. Thank You, dear Father.

What effect would it have on your heart if you were to consciously experience God’s attentive and compassionate ear today?

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Experiencing this attribute:

When you pray, remind yourself that it is not the words you are saying that make up the essence of the prayer – it is the desires in your heart. Think about what is really rising up to heaven, and strive to make your righteous desires powerful and intense desires.

The word translated afflicted carries the idea of the humility that results from trouble. Let all your affliction humble you. That’s what it’s for.

I am so prideful and self-centered. I have so little humility and meekness and gentleness. Dear Father, please humble me. Bring me down to the dust, for he who dwells in the dust dwells nearest heaven. The lower I descend the higher my prayers ascend. Make me a man who draws attention to You and not to me. Make me a man who thinks about Your kingdom and not my immediate impulses. Make me a man who is constantly concerned with others instead of myself.

Think: What are the deepest desires of your heart right now? And where did those desires come from – the world or from the Word of God?

Promise to trust today:

Psalm 10:17 You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you strengthen their heart, and you listen to their cry[2]

True prayer is the expression of a genuine desire. At a loss to know what to pray? Pour out your heart to God. Come to Him with your deepest desires. Don’t just pray for the things you think are most important, but seek to make those things your greatest desire so your prayers are real prayers.

Oh Lord, let all the desires You hear from my heart be righteous desires. And let my righteous desires be powerful.

It is especially the desires of the afflicted that God hears. That means the more afflicted you are the more attentive God is to your desires.

If the Lord hears the desires of the afflicted as prayers it stands to reason that He hears evil desires as well – not that He inclines a favorable ear toward evil desires, but that He hears them. All our evil desires, just by their mere existence, turn themselves into a kind of James 4:3-4 type praying (praying with wrong motives, that we may spend what we get selfishly). It is not enough to merely suppress evil desires.