Now That I've Got Your Attention

Audrey is my loudest kid. She goes all the way up to 11!

A friend recently told me that as the youngest of 5, she was a loud kid. With all the noise in the house, she had to be. Her intense volume was the only way to get her parents to hear her, to make her needs known.

Her story made me think about my littlest Simmons, and her intensely perceptible little voice. It also made me strongly consider having more kids (could they be louder than Audrey!?!) and it drew me to consider another reason why we should pray.

Let's look at 2 Chronicles 7:12-16

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place [the temple the people had just built] for myself as a temple for sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,  if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.  I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

The #2 reason we should pray: Prayer is a unique privilege.

Let's face it. Everybody prays. At some point in every person's life, everyone flings at least one request to the heavens. 

The unique thing about Christian prayer is that there is a God up there who is catching what is flung. He promises to hear the prayers that are prayed in the temple. And that means something for us because the New Testament tells us that if we are in a relationship with Christ and have the Spirit of God dwelling inside of us, then we are the new Temple of God (1 Cor 3:16-17). 

So we should pray because God is paying attention!


We normally only think about God's attention when we are thinking about behavior management. Don't go to that party...God is watching. Don't think that thought or say that thing about that girl...God's right beside you. He's making that list, checking it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty...But His attention of us is actually a much bigger and more beautiful idea. The Living, all powerful God is attending you. His eyes and His heart are close to you. He is paying attention. 


Think about the last time you were really hurt, broken by someone else's selfishness. God was paying attention. His eyes and His heart were close to you.


What about the last time you felt real joy, success. God saw you. His eyes and His heart were close to you. The last time you failed, the last time you felt completely out of your depth, the last time you were bored with life, the last time you laughed so hard you were crying-God was with you. His heart was close to you.


Your God is paying attention to you. He is for you and He cares what happens. You don't have to be the loudest talker, the most pious, or the most rebellious to get His attention. He offers it to us because He loves us and because that is just how good and big He is.


This makes me want to pray. To know that my God who is bringing the sun and putting it to bed, who is creative enough to imagine a giraffe and an oak tree, who is running the mysteries of the universe-that He takes the time to pay attention to me, when I hurt, when I stress, when I laugh. His attention feels good.


And it makes me want to return the favor.