One of the qualities of God we see much in the scriptures is His listening. James tells us that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. As we know this cannot be from any power or effectiveness that we possess alone, it must therefore come from God's listening. Jesus appeared to speak quite a bit in the four gospels, but any of us could easily speak all the written words of Christ in a day or less. What He did much in the same gospels was to listen, and hear the words both spoken and unspoken all around Him. Think of all the prayers God must hear in a single day or even just one hour; yet, we are assured that all are heard by our Lord. That short, intense prayer for help comes quickly, but the Lord hears all of it and more!
We too, as disciples of our Lord Jesus must learn to listen and hear the voice of suffering around us. We don't always do it well, thinking perhaps that our talking is the way to the heart of those in need. The distractions and duties of a life in this world also work against our hearing the suffering all around us. And, there is of course our suffering too that takes up our attention as we pour out our distress to the Lord. What should remind us that others are hurting as we are does not always register with us even in prayer. Our duty of love is clear, listen! Hear the sound of suffering and lift up the sufferer to the Lord in prayer.
May God have mercy on this world,
Bucky
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