I’ll Listen”
In the 1977 movie, “Oh God,” A grocery clerk, played by John Denver, begins to hear God’s voice speaking to him. Then God, played by George Burns, begins to appear to him. Throughout the movie God talks to this “unbelieving” clerk. In the final scene God tells him that he is going away. Disappointed, the now believing clerk asks, “Sometimes, now and then, couldn’t we just talk?” To which God replies in the final line of the movie, “I’ll tell you what, you talk, I’ll listen.”
Sometimes even Hollywood gets it right. Jesus taught us to talk to God. “Go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your father.” He then lets us know that our Father is listening, “and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward in full” (Matt. 6:6). It should be a constant conversation, as you “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), letting “your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6).
God knows “what you have need of before you ask (Matt. 6:8), but He wants to hear it from your lips. How often do you talk to Him? When you ask, do you have faith that He hears? Your Heavenly Father is always listening. The only unanswered prayer is the unspoken one. How often does He hear your voice? Like “God” said, “You talk, I’ll listen.”
-Dennis Doughty