THE CHRISTIAN WALK: HEAR MY CRY, O GOD; LISTEN TO MY PRAYER

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth I call to You, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.

I long to dwell in Your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. For You, God, have heard my vows; You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.

Increase the days of the king’s life, his years for many generations. May he be enthroned in God’s presence forever; appoint Your love and faithfulness to protect him.

Then I will ever sing in praise of Your name and fulfill my vows day after day.

Psalm 61

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How do we build healthy relationships in life?

I believe it’s through healthy communications. In fact, I wrote a quote a long time ago that I have used to underscore this: “Communication is the lifeblood of relationship.”

If you don’t believe this, try to not communicate with someone for a period of time and see what happens to that relationship. It’s happening today in marriages and the result is divorce rates that are going through the roof. It happens in friendships that die on the vine as people move apart and stop keeping in touch. And it happens in the workplace, leading to misunderstanding, reduced productivity, and often firings or people quitting their jobs.

It happens in our spiritual lives as well. For in order to maintain a healthy spiritual existence, you have to talk with the Lord. It just doesn’t work any other way. And yet how many days go by where prayer is not a part of our daily routine? It has to happen more often than in church on Sunday or when you find yourself in hardship and crying out for help. Keep in mind that God is always available for us and the least we can do is always present ourselves as available to Him, especially to have a talk every day.

Keep in mind that communication is two-way in nature if it’s going to work. One person is the sender while the other is the receiver. It doesn’t work well when two people talk at the same time and, as discussed earlier, it definitely doesn’t work when both parties are silent. As a norm, we tend to be terrible listeners and I think this is why this old saying came about: “You have two ears and one mouth so you should listen twice as much as you speak.” Sometimes, people just want us to listen to them, caring about their situation. And all of the time, God expects us to be listening for Him as He calls and He is always calling. Unfortunately, too often we’re too busy to take the call or we put Him on call waiting.

Is that the way we should treat our Almighty God?

In the 61st Psalm, I love the words of David as he communicates with the Lord. As we have read through the psalms to this point and will continue to see as we progress to the final one, David, a man after God’s own heart, knew how to communicate with God through prayer and was ever seeking to maintain that relationship with his heavenly Father. Look again at David’s prayer in this psalm and especially at the very first words:

“Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.”

David, in entering into conversation with God, is asking Him to hear his plea and listen to his petitions. He is setting the stage for proper communications with God, turning to the only One he knew could help him. We should seek to use these words in our prayer life as well, ever asking God to hear and receive our words. Let me illustrate how we can do this using David’s psalm. Consider the following method:

From the ends of the earth I call to You, I call as my heart grows faint.