Have you ever called to talk to someone only to hear their recorded message? When that happens, we often leave a message, a voicemail. Hopefully they’ll return our call so we can talk to them directly.
Wouldn’t it be awful if when we prayed to God, we heard back by way of a recording? “Hi, this is God; sorry I can’t answer your call at this time, but if you leave Me a message, I’ll get back to you.” Imagine how shocking that would be!
People sometimes don’t answer their phones for a variety of reasons. They may be busy and not answering any calls; they may be screening their calls, choosing which ones to answer; they may in fact be on the phone talking to someone else. They might even have their phone turned off.
On the other hand, God has told us in His Word that His ears are always open to our prayers. That clearly tells us two things. First, God has the ability to hear our prayers, even if we all decided to pray at the same time. God is that almighty to be able to do that!
Secondly, He is willing to have His ears open to our prayers. He chooses to always be listening. He’s never too busy. He never “screens” our prayers. We never have to leave a recorded message that He might listen to later, and, He never puts us on hold. He is always there and always listening.
Keeping those things in mind when you pray can really enrich your time in talking to your heavenly Father. They also serve to remind us to spend some quiet time listening for His answer, expecting to hear back from Him.
So, the next time to pray, aren’t you glad God doesn’t have a cell phone?