Are Your Ears Open When You Pray?
He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned.
Isaiah 50:4 NKJV
Are Your Ears Open When You Pray?
The faithful Servant of God was in the habit of getting up early in the morning to start the day with prayer. In Psalm 88:13 He says prophetically, “In the morning My prayer comes before You.” Every morning, He lived out His dependence on God by having His ear awakened and opened in the quietness of the morning to be taught like a disciple—a learner.
The great and eternal “I am,” the Lord (Yahweh) of the Old Testament, the Creator of heaven and earth, came into this world in servant form, and in prayer He allowed God to show Him what He should do! Before daybreak, He entered into the presence of God, where He was prepared for the service of the day. There in the silence, He received words with which to revive tired and despondent souls.
The disciples knew where they could find their Master in the early morning hours. When they eventually reached Him, they confronted Him with the words, “Everyone is looking for You” (Mk. 1:37). With such news, one tends to respond immediately to the desires of those who are asking for them. To say “no” and thereby disappoint others is often not easy. But what did the Lord answer His disciples in this situation? He had already been prepared by His time of quietness in the presence of God, and therefore knew what He should do: “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also” (1:38). This was God’s will for Him that day—and it was this will that determined His daily routine.
David longed for the Lord to speak to him at the beginning of the day, for he wrote, “Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You” (Ps. 143:8). Let this also be our prayer for today!
-- Philip Svetlik
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