Excuse Me, Are You Listening?
I am around incredible kids just about every single day of the week. From working at a local church as the Children's Ministry Assistant to interning at an elementary school with a Pre-K class, I have the privilege of seeing students grow and learn throughout the year. I am always blown away by some of the simple revelations or comments that come from some of these kids.
At the elementary school where I'm interning, these kids are all energy, even at the very beginning of the day. It is amazing to see the way they learn and take in information about the world around them, and they certainly love to talk! They are at such a fun age where so many things are new and constantly exciting to them.
As the kids have gotten more comfortable with me being in their classroom, the more they love to talk to me at breakfast and tell me everything they can. They excitedly show me when they open their own milk, juice, cereal, or yogurt and simply beam when I celebrate along with them!
One particular student loves to talk. To make sure I am really paying attention, he pokes my arm and says, "Miss Rachel! Miss Rachel! Miss Rachel!" until I look in his direction and say "Yes?"
While talking to him, I have several others that are saying, "Miss Rachel! Miss Rachel! Miss Rachel!"
I try to give everyone a turn, and then that same student pokes my shoulder and says "Miss Rachel! Miss Rachel! Miss Rachel!"
A different student was talking with me, so I continued my conversation. Another friend pointed at the student poking my shoulder and said, "He's trying to talk to you."
Again, I felt him poke my shoulder while saying, "Miss Rachel! Miss Rachel! Miss Rachel! Are you listening to me?"
I smiled and said, "I am now! What is it?"
As he launched into his spirited story, that phrase stuck with me.
Are you listening to me?
How often I felt that same way in my own life, towards the Lord! Hey, are you listening to me? Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Can you hear me? Are You listening?
The awesome thing about the Lord is that He is always listening, even when we don't feel like He is. The Lord is changing my perspective of prayer: just because I don't see the fruit from it immediately doesn't mean the Father isn't working in that situation.
I love this quote from Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson. "Too often we pray ASAP prayers- as soon as possible. We need to start praying ALAT prayers- as long as it takes."
Praying through is just as important as praying for.
Psalm 4:3 says, "The Lord will answer when I call to Him."
What an awesome promise!
I'm asking the Father to keep moving the promise of Psalm 4:3 from my head to my heart so that I will live by that promise!
The Lord may not answer my prayers immediately, but I see His fingerprints of faith and mercy all over my life. The Lord can be instantaneous, and I've seen that happen in my own life too.
How ever, more often, He is calling me to a place of waiting. He is calling me to trust- to live in faith, one single step at a time.
We don't have to dance around the outskirts of His presence, begging Him to pay attention to us. He is calling us into His presence, to sit next to His heart. Living life with the Father means that conversation is a two-way street. He speaks to us, we speak to Him, and out of the overflow of all of that, we are able to bless others.
I'm praying that as we continue to journey through the month of October, the Lord will displace any lie placed on our hearts that He doesn't hear us.
Between the Shadow and the Soul: Blogging through the journey.