Rev.8:1 – When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Ps.65:2 – O You who hear prayer,
To You all men come.

God is listening. Listening to me? How is that possible. With a universe to run and
8 billion voices making all kinds of demands how can my voice be heard and why would it matter if it was heard?
As a child I had this strange picture in my mind of God answering prayer. Think of a man who looks like a really, really old Jesus, long white hair and beard, sitting at an old school operator’s station with an old switchboard taking calls and connecting them by unplugging a wire here and plugging it in there. In my childlike head it seemed that the Lord was extremely busy and even getting through to Him seemed like an impossibility. Becoming a Christian and realizing the personal access we all have to the Lord and the fact that He hears my prayers is quite life changing. God not only hears me but He listens attentively to my sighs, groans, and prayers. Here is something Eugene Peterson says about God hearing our prayers.

“Silence in heaven for about half an hour: God listens. Everything we say, every groan, every murmur, every stammering attempt at prayer: all this is listened to. All heaven quiets down. The loud angel voices, the piercing trumpet messages, the thundering throne songs are settled while God listens. “Hush, hush, whisper who dares? Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.” The prayers of the faithful must be heard: the spontaneous hallelujahs, the solemn amens, the desperate “Why hast thou forsaken me?” the agonized “Take this cup from me,” the tempered “Nevertheless not my will but your will,” the faithfully spoken “Our Father who art in heaven,” the joyful “Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created.” All the psalms, said and sung for centuries in voices boisterous, subdued, angry, and serene are now heard- heard personally, carefully, accurately. God silences the elders and the angels. Not one of the words is lost in a wind tunnel of gossip or drowned in a cataract of the world’s noise.”

Coming to grips with this is quite life changing. I want to say it again, God hears and listens to your prayers. It’s easy to think that we are unimportant or not spiritual enough for God to give me the time of day. The blood of the cross changed all of that. I come to the Lord in prayer not on my merits but by the merits of Christ. I come not as an outsider but as His beloved son. He listens to my prayers, He listens to your prayers. He is changing our world through these prayers. No wonder everything went silent, God is listening.