Several years back I worked with a counseling ministry and was in a session when the woman blurted out:

“You haven’t heard a word I said!”

I thought that’s a weird way to start a conversation. But just in case I was actually supposed to listen I nodded and grunted.

“I knew it!” I should have shook instead of nodded.

This reminds me of a certain counselor colleague of mine. He had a client that believed she was boring and half through her session, he fell asleep!

Men are just not wired into conversation as much as women. I know there are some men who yak up a storm and there are some women who hardly ever talk at all. Both are rare. Most men I know only talk about their favorite sport. Most women talk about anything except that man’s favorite sport.   

A woman talking to you it is a gift. Unless they are mad at you. Then it’s a bit less of a gift.

So back to the woman mad at me. To be fair she was telling me a rather long story instead of answering my question. And to be even more fair since I like to be fair when it applies to me, it was close to eating time and there was food smell.

At any rate she was only half right. I did hear most of her words.

Can you imagine God zoning out half through a prayer request?

“Hi God, Andy here with my prayer requests.”

“Great to hear from you my son.”

“Good to be with you. Now shall we get on with it? Give my friend a better haircut, let my car run better, and I really like that new restaurant so thanks for that, please give me money to eat at it,…”

“Zzzzzzz.”

“Sorry God, I didn’t catch that. I knew I should have paid more attention in those hearing God classes.”

I wonder how many times He does get tired of our prayer lists.

Gary Larson had a cartoon of a herd of cows watching a family in a car drive by. Instead of the kids yelling “Moo” out the window, the cows yell: “Yak Yak Yakkity”

Our prayers don’t sound like yak yakkity to God.  I don’t even think they sound like moo either.

And God never zones out. So no matter how long I go on, God still listens.

And not just to me. Billions of Christians around the world talk to God at the same time. And yet not one is not heard.

Now there is a huge difference between listening and hearing.  I listen to a lot of things. Hearing means I get what the noise is all about.

“Are you still in the bathroom?” Is a question to which I often listen. More times than I care to admit. Listening to it doesn’t change anything though.

“Do you want another piece of pie?” Now that’s a question I can really hear.

God hears both questions and every other thing you can throw at him.

Unlike me, He even cares about each one. God is like that.

He loves when we talk with Him. I suppose it is like our own kids are small enough to still be cute. When they first learn to make noises and try to talk it is pretty funny. We love to listen to their gurgles and strange little sounds.

Now I am not saying that God thinks our prayers are just gurgling noises. My point is that He loves to hear them. And He loves to answer them.

Even if you yak yakkity about me being in the bathroom too long!

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Andy Becker’s spiritual warfare thriller, The Travellers, is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca