Getting God’s Ear

A “Word” from the Pastor…

“On Getting God’s Ear”

Hi Saints,

I hope you found Wednesday’s class helpful in your daily prayer life. In case you missed a note

or two, here are the highlights of the class with a little extra information. For ease of identifying

the extra info, I will put that information in italics. I found much of the class not only to be

informative but somewhat entertaining as well. For instance, in the early part of the class when

Abraham addresses God:

Abraham appealed to God as the “judge of all the earth,” and reprimanded God somewhat by

telling him “that be far from thee.” What was important was that we come to understand that

God is not some distant, far off stranger. He is nothing less than our Father and for that reason

alone we should feel comfortable communicating with him. I was a grown man before I felt at

ease talking with my father but as I came to know him I was surprised that we had a lot in

common and more, I came to realize that he wanted me to talk to him and actually anticipated

meeting any request I made. I think about my own children. My concern has nothing to do with

denying any request they may make, I am concerned that I may not be able to accommodate

their needs. Our heavenly Father never has to concern himself with His ability to perform our

requests. If any, He might have to give some thought as to whether or not our request is for our

benefit or not. And that thought does not pose any problem for the one who asked Abraham “Is

anything too hard for the Lord?”

I was thinking over Abraham’s request about making the righteous exempt when destroying the cities. I think, without Abraham’s intervention that God may very well have destroyed the righteous with the wicked. But the destruction of the righteous would have ultimately been handled differently. We get a glimpse of what I am trying to say in the information surrounding the communion supper. We are told there, that because they did not take communion “discerning the Lord’s body” that many were sickly and further, some slept, meaning that some died. The same passage makes it clear that they did not die in the eternal sense but the euphemism ‘sleep’ was used to show that they would not be condemned with the world. Check it out in I Corinthians 11.

My point is that in the judgment of the righteous with the wicked God could have put the

righteous to sleep while at the same time putting the wicked to death.

Another point crossed my mind. Why did Abraham stop bartering at ten? The language clearly

shows that each time Abraham lowered the number he felt that he was pushing God so perhaps

he figured that ten was as low as God would go. But based on the logic of his argument, for

God to destroy even one would not have been just. What’s my point? Don’t pursue a course of

logical argument with God without taking it to the limit. In the case of healing, don’t settle for

less than what is actually available merely because we feel that we have pushed God too far.

Go all the way to the ‘one.’ As it turned out, God’s grace allowed for the escape of four before

destroying the city and they did not merit salvation. It looked as if God was willing to save the

sons-in-law as well if only they believed Lot’s warning.

Now let’s take a look at Moses. I enjoyed the part where Moses reminded God of his promise to

Abraham. He even went so far as to remind God of the oath He made in swearing himself by

himself to keep the promise made to the patriarchs What Moses did was to present

indisputable facts to God regarding his promises and character. The part about the Egyptians

was thrown in for good measure because, let’s face it, I don’t think the Egyptians would have

bothered to report on God seeing as how they didn’t have anything to gain by doing so. Such

an action would have probably worsened their already tenuous situation. It shows the intent of

God’s heart to have communication with his people.

After we came home Wednesday my wife asked me how can we approach God with something

that He hasn’t already heard. Good question! I think that would be a difficult task also. On

further consideration of that point I believe the Holy Ghost gave me this answer.

It’s not originality that God is expecting from us, although each of our situations being different,

originality is still an open option, but rather God will respond to our urgency and sincerity in our

petitions. I had someone come up for prayer a couple of weeks ago and in making their request

they specified that they had an emergency crisis. Naturally I presented the case to God with the

same urgency. And guess what? They reported that before they arrived home God had already

interceded on their behalf.

Let me remind you again what God said to Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” That

might be a line to use in reasoning with God when you present Him with a difficult, out of the

normal situation. Should you do so, please don’t forget the message about “What’s in it For

Him” and praise God in the congregation of the saints.