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I-04 GOD HEARS US
(II Samuel 22:7,17-19)

A child was mumbling his prayers and his mom said, "Please
speak loud­er. I can't hear you!" "I wasn't talking to you,"
the little fellow replied.

Well God does hear us. The Scrip­ture says, "In my distress I
called to the Lord . . . he heard my voice; my cry came to his
ears. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew
me out of deep waters. The Lord was my support" (II Sam.
22:7,17,19).

All of us want to feel that some­one is listening. All of us
need under­stand­ing and sympathy. This Scripture tells us that
God is there for us. The Psalmist said, "O Lord my God, I
called to you for help and you healed me" (Psa. 30:2).

It's important to note that being heard does help us heal. A
woman said, "My friend was an attractive young woman, who always
seemed to have the world in her pocket. So when she shared with
me the heartbreak of her broken marriage and her terrible
strug­gles as a single parent, I was stun­ned. So stunned that
I could manage only an occasional sympathetic mur­mur, unable to
recall even one of my usual glib, 'fix-it' slogans.

By the end of the conversation, I felt I'd failed her
completely. Imagine my amazement when she said, 'Thank you!
This is the best visit we've ever had. I really needed to talk
to some­one today.'

It was a humbling experience to learn that, to her, our best
conversation was the one in which I'd said almost nothing! I
decided I must learn to 'trust the silences' because often
people need my listening ear much more than they need my
advice."

Hearing a person with empathy is "Holy Listening."

One woman wrote: "When I ask you to listen to me and you start
giving advice, you have not done what I asked. Advice is cheap:
50 cents will get you Dear Abby in a newspaper. Also, when I
ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I
should­n't feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me and you try to solve my problem,
you contribute to my weakness.

All I ask is, that you listen. Just hear me!"

Perhaps that's why prayer is so important. God doesn't give
advice or try to fix things. He just listens. He hears us!

So, under what circumstance does God "hear" us?

I. FIRST, GOD HEARS US WHEN WE'RE AFRAID.

He reassures us. The Psalmist says, "Even though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you
are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me"
(Psa.23:4).

Later he says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation-- whom
shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-- of whom
shall I be afraid?" (Psa. 27:1).

"You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies
by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the dark­ness, nor the
plague that destroys at midday" (Psa. 91:5-6).

Such Scriptures are important be­cause the history of our
species is the history of fear. Once we were huddled around
fires in caves, hiding from the saber-toothed tigers and woolly
mam­moths lurking outside. A hundred years ago we lost half our
children to painful diseases. Now, we wonder if we will escape
a nuclear holocaust or a terrorist attack. Fear is here to
stay. It's how we deal with our fear that makes or breaks us.

Having faith that God hears will help us deal with it. Once a
Chinese man named Lo attended a meeting and listened with little
interest as several speakers expounded the word of God.
However, He became extremely excit­ed when one of the ministers
read as his text these words of Jesus, "And, Lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20).

"Oh, My!" the immigrant remem­bers saying to himself, "The Lord
real­ly knows my name and makes me a promise like that!

Well, the Lord has made this same promise to each one of us.
Jesus said, "Peace I leave with You; my peace I give you . . .
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John
14:27).

God hears us when we're afraid.

II. THEN, GOD HEARS US WHEN WE'RE DEPRESSED.

He lifts us. Depression is ramp­ant today. Psychologists say
it has be­come the "common cold" of mental ill­ness. But
depression is not new. Job said, "I loathe my very life;
therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in
the bitterness of my soul" (Job. 10:1).

The Psalmist said, "My tears have been my food day and night,
while men say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?' " (Psa
42:3)

But, hope is always present. David said, "In my alarm I said,
'I am cut off from your sight!' Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help" (Psa. 31:22).

Paul said, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;
perplex­ed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed" (II Cor 4:8-9).

God always provides a way out. Dawns follow darkness and
resurrec­tions follows crucifixion. David said, "Why are you
downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope
in God . . . ." (Psa. 43:5).

Norman Vincent Peal said, "When I was a boy, a picture on my
classroom wall showed a lonely beach with the tide out and a
boat stranded on the sand. Few things look more depressing than
a boat left high and dry by receding water. But the caption
under the picture said, 'Remember, the tide always comes back.'
There is ebb and flow in the fortunes of human life. When
everything goes against you and it seems you can hold on no
longer, never give up. The tide will turn."
Just knowing someone is con­cern­ed raises our spirits. A
writer tells of having dinner with Bishop Des­mond Tutu, winner
of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize. One of the guests asked the
bish­op what ordinary citizens could do in the world to promote
peace. He gaz­ed into the distance for a moment, then an­swered
in a quiet voice, "You must care! You must care!"

God does care! He hears us when we're depressed.

III. FINALLY, GOD HEARS US WHEN WE'RE WEAK.

He supports us. Everyone has weak­nesses. Everyone has areas
of vul­nerability. God has a special con­cern for the weak.
The Psalmist said, " 'Because of the oppression of the weak and
the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,' says the Lord. 'I
will protect them from those who malign them' " (Psa. 12:5).

"(I) will take pity on the weak and the needy . . . ." (Psa.
72:13).

The Psalmist recognized his need of God. He said, "I am poor
and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my
deliverer; O my God, do not delay" (Psa. 40:17).

"When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and
stout­heart­ed" (Psa. 138:3).

Paul even said his weakness was his strength. "I delight in
weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in
difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (II Cor.
12:10).

A mother said, "My son Brian was afraid to go into a swimming
pool unless I went with him. I couldn't un­der­stand why he was
so timid. "Why do I have to be with you?" I said to him one
day. "The lifeguard is right there. Don't you know that if you
get into trouble, he'll save you much quicker than I?"

"But I don't know him, Mom­my," Brian answered, clinging to my
hand.

So I took Brian and introduced him to the lifeguard. The two of
them talked, and somehow that gave Brian the security he needed
to swim without me."

It's the same with us. We must know God in order to benefit
from His presence. Isaiah expresses this princi­ple well: "He
gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak"
(Isa. 40:29).

God hears us in our weakness!

David said, "In my distress . . . I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into
his ears" (Psa. 18:6).

"Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains" (Psa.
54:4).

Our heavenly father is not just a passive recipient of our
petitions. But, He's not a "magician" either. Instead, He
works slowly and naturally through our own resources, through
other peo­ple's generosity and through ordinary life
circumstances. One woman, who always seemed calm and competent
revealed her secret: She had a "God's Business" folder in her
desk. Whenever anything happened that she couldn't han­dle after
she had tried her best, she wrote it out on a piece of paper and
filed it. Then she quit worrying about it. She said, at the end
of each year when she went back over all the items; in al­most
every case the problems had been satisfactorily solved.

God works with us on an every­day basis, but we're not always
aware of the details. As Isaiah said, " 'My thoughts are not
your thoughts, neith­er are your ways my ways,' declares the
Lord" (Isa. 55:8).

Paul also alluded to the com­pre­hensive way God interacts with
us. He said, "In him we live and move and have our being . . ."
(Acts 17:28).

"From him and through him and to him are all things" (Rom.
11:36).

The Prophet Nahum indicates that knowing God and being known by
God is essential. "The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day
of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him" (Nahum 1:7,
kjv).

A tourist visited the American Mil­itary Cemetery in
Normandy-the beach where American troops waded ashore into
German artillery fire on June 6, 1944 was silent now. There
were ten thousand identical white mar­ble crosses. He said, "As
I walked down those endless rows of head­stones, the name, rank
and home state were all that remained of each individ­ual.
Their life histories had ended here in Normandy. Living,
breathing indi­vid­uals had been reduced to imper­sonal markers.
I walked on, and stopped in front of a cross that lacked even
the dis­tinction of a name. The inscription read, 'Here Rests
in Honored Glory, a Comrade in Arms, Known but to God.'

'Known but to God!' Suddenly, I realized that God knew each one
of them. He knew them as persons. He knows them now."

God knows us; and He hears us!

******

These messages are from an unpublished manuscript © copyrighted
by Miles and Maralene Wesner, Idabel, OK. Please use them in
any way you think appropriate. The only thing we ask is that
you give credit for original material in published works.

Sermons with the "I" prefix are from our "What's the Good Word"
Series;
II from our "Pitfalls on the Path of Life"
III are sermons for special days and occasions.

EMAIL SERMON SERVICE is a free service from Diversity Press.

Material in our sermons usually present the Gospel from a
psychological point of view.

My ministry has been blessed immeasurably by reading other
people's sermons. When I started preaching 56 years ago, I
waited for "inspiration" (usually Saturday night, about
midnight) before I began my sermon preparation. Then, I
discovered it wasn't inspiration at all-it was sheer PANIC. I
would have welcomed this service.

Comments are always welcome. (Please indicate if you do not want
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Miles E. Wesner