God is listening

Sunday January 15th, Psalm 139: LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. When we are called to pray unceasingly we sometimes get the wrong notion that in doing so we will somehow get God’s attention with all our words and prayer. The truth is that God is already ever present in our existence. God is present not just with the words we say or the conscious (and sometimes semi-conscious) silent prayers we offer, but God actively knows our thoughts, spoken or unspoken, conscious or unconscious, the good, the bad and the ugly, our dreams, our limits, both real and imagined, all and every part of us. It is all there offered up to a God who actively seeks us out and loves us in spite of the good, the bad and the ugly, and some of our dreams and self-imposed limits. Our reaching out to God is not to get God’s attention, it is in response to a God who already knows us intimately and has already reached out to us. Often the answer to prayer is simply God’s understanding of us, every facet of us, and yes, that can be a bit scary from time to time. It also opens up the possibility of what we can bring before this God who knows everything about us, in prayer. Often, through prayer, we are the ones who are changed.