By Megan Blansit

Founder of The Beautiful Movement - a youth ministry for high school girls. For more information, visit The Beautiful Movement’s Facebook page, where I post the time, place, and activity for each month

“Can you hear me now?… “Can you hear me now?”… “What about now?” Oh, the numerous times we have all heard that commercial, right? I’m going to change channels for a minute, how many times do we ask God that? Do you ever feel like He is deaf to your prayers? Do you ever feel like He doesn’t care? I’ve been there with you, friend.; you’re not alone. Unfortunately, Gods time clock is not the same as ours. BUT, this does not mean we serve a deaf or a dead God. We serve a living God, who loves nothing more than when we talk to him.

I imagine this is the Lord’s everyday thought process (keep in mind, this is my personal imagination.) “Oh! Megan just got up! I wonder if she will talk to me this morning…. Okay, she’s brushing her teeth, maybe she will spend time with me during breakfast… Hmm nope… she’s running late for work (my friends & family know this is true- I need to work on that) ….Maybe she will pray over her food at lunch and talk to me… Okay, nope, well…maybe she will talk to me at some point today (cue a deep sigh.) That may sound crazy, but along those lines are how I imagine God. I see him as someone longing to talk with us, always full of love, not someone full of anger and wanting to punish us for something wrong we said or did yesterday, or even last week. The Bible says his grace is new every morning. Besides, nothing you can do will make God love you less. I love serving a God who doesn’t give his children the silent treatment. And you know what, he also never gets tired of hearing you prayers either, friend.

Life is busy, right? I would dare to say many of us get caught up in doing busy work and maybe don’t even know how to relax or be still. However, sometimes God wants our stillness. I believe he longs for it actually. It is in the stillness that I often hear Gods voice. Psalms 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” I don’t know about you, but I can often be a “Martha” instead of a “Mary” In Luke 10, Martha was the stressed out, busy-bee, trying to get everything in order, while her sister Mary was the one sitting in Jesus’ presence. In summary of the story, Martha was complaining to Jesus because her sister wasn’t helping her with the work that needed done and Jesus’ shocking response (to Martha) was that Mary was doing the right thing. Sometimes Jesus doesn’t want your works, sometimes he just wants your attention. (Psalms 46:10)

I also picture talking with Jesus as if it is a real phone call. Lets say some people have no problem being “still” and praying to God, but how many of us are guilty of talking nonstop and and then “hanging up on him?” We present all of our needs (and wants) to him and then when we are done, thats it! Time to move on with our day. But, I often wonder how many times the Lord is sitting on the edge of his throne with such excitement and anticipation for you to let him speak and then he isn’t given the chance. What if we made our requests to God and then sat in his presence (like Mary)? What if we gave him the time to speak back? What if we grabbed our Bible and meditated on his Word? I think we could avoid a lot of confusion and chaos if we took the time to let him speak.

My challenge to you this week is do not “hang up” on God. Give the Lord time to speak into your life today. This could be done by actually hearing him speak into your spirit, encouragement through a christian song, digging into his Word, etc. Next, don’t believe the lie that the Lord doesn’t hear your prayers. The Lord’s response to, “Can you hear me now?” is always a “Yes.”