God Is Listening

"If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." Psalm 66:18

Christians are often told by our leaders and fellow believers that if we have "unconfessed" sin in our hearts, God will not listen to our prayers. Furthermore, the burden is increased when we are told that on top of God not listening to us, He will find ways to punish us for our sins. And this is said to be how He treats His own children, let alone unbelievers whose attitudes about God range from indifference to outright hostility. But, in perfect fashion, God always has a testimony that turns what we believe about Him inside out. Enter Christian rapper, Lecrae. When he was 17 years-old a woman asked him, "Are you saved?" He didn't have any idea what she meant by being saved. To the best of his ability, he equated being saved to being like his grandmother. He replied to the woman by saying, "No, I'm not anything like my grandmother." Sometime later, after admitting that he just "didn't fit in," he did what many of us do when we don't know God, but know of Him. He made a deal with God. "I remember articulating like, "God get me out of this. Just don't kill me. Do whatever you got to do to get me out of this. Just don't kill me." I was driving down the highway. And I turned so quickly that I lost control of the wheel. My car flipped over, again and again, the roof caved in, the windshield caved in ... no seat belt ... glass everywhere! The glasses that I had on were molded kind of into the frame of the car. And I didn't have a scratch. That was it. I said, "I get it." I called up my friends who I knew were living for Jesus. I said, "We got to make this happen."" To listen to Lecrae tell his story, it sounds like God wasn't holding his sins against him. God answered his prayer. Now, I don't believe God caused the accident, but one can't argue the results; he didn't have a scratch on him. And he was not even saved at the moment of his accident. Yet, God answered His prayer. Why would God listen to the prayer of an unbeliever? It is because He loved him! Love is the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. John 3:16, arguably the most famous sentence in the history of the world, says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Why would Jesus Christ die for the sins of the world, yet not listen to the world when they cry out to Him because their sins have brought them to the end of themselves? Why would Peter, the man who denied Jesus Christ three times and was restored by the Lord after His resurrection, say, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)"? The unbeliever, the hurting, the distraught, the searching, the seeker, and the suffering are the people Jesus Christ came to save.

In Psalm 66:18, the psalmist writes that God would not have listened to him if he cherished iniquity in his heart. To cherish means to adore, love, treasure or place a high value on. It is possible to believe that God doesn't listen to people who cherish sin in their hearts. However, are people who are cherishing sin in their hearts talking to God? Most likely they are not giving God the opportunity to respond to them. When you adore, love, treasure, and place a high value on something, does anything else get your attention? No, it does not. Not even God is on the mind of someone who is "in love" with their sin. Not unlike Lecrae, when I was a teenager I was not saved either. Despite going to church and trying to do "Christian" things, I did not know God. Yet, it was during that time that I uttered the most sincere prayer I had ever spoken to that point in my life. I said, "God, if this is getting to know You, then I am never going to know You." And also, similar to Lecrae, I qualified my prayer by asking God not to kill me, make me suffer loss, or be injured. About ten years later, after a failed relationship, I found Jesus. God answered my prayer just like He did with Lecrae. It is when iniquity has eaten us up inside that we are ready to talk to God. And, in His love, He is always on standby ready to listen. In Luke 19:10, Jesus said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Earlier in the Gospel of Luke, when the Pharisees and scribes complained about Jesus eating with "tax collectors and sinners," Jesus replied, " It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick (Luke 5:31)." If Jesus came to seek and to save the lost that means He is listening for them to speak to Him. It is just like when rescuers are searching for a lost person. They call out to them and listen for a response. So much so, that in many cases the rescuers try and maintain silence so as to increase their ability to hear the person they are searching for should they cry out or make a noise. As for Jesus eating with the "sick." While all mankind is sick in the sense they need to be saved, I believe Jesus is making reference to those sick who want to be saved. In other words, those who understand their need for a doctor to make them well again. Lecrae knew he was sick and needed medical attention for his ailing spirit. I was no different as I begged God to heal my heart. He did even more and healed my Spirit with Himself. God not only listens to those who no longer cherish iniquity in their hearts. Those are the people He is listening for the most.