Hearing Us from Heaven

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading, titled Hearing Us from Heaven, was written by Patricia Rabin. At 18 months old, little Mason had never heard his mother's voice. Then doctors fitted him with his first hearing aids and his mom, Lauren, asked him, can you hear me? The child's eyes lit up. Hi, baby, Lauren added. A smiling Mason responded to his mother with soft coos. In tears, Lauren knew she'd witnessed a miracle.

She'd given birth to Mason prematurely after gunmen shot her three times during a random home invasion. Weighing just one pound, Mason spent 158 days in intensive care and wasn't expected to survive, let alone be able to hear. That heartwarming story reminds me of the God who hears us. King Solomon prayed fervently for God's attuned ear, especially during troubling times. When there is no rain, during famine or plague, disaster or disease, war, and even sin, hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, Solomon prayed, and uphold their cause. In his goodness, God responded with a promise that still stirs our hearts. In 2 Chronicles 7.14, it reads, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Heaven may seem a long way off, yet Jesus is with those who believe in him. God hears our prayers and he answers them. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from 1 Kings 8, verses 37 through 45. When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, and when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel, being aware of the afflictions of their own hearts and spreading out their hands toward this temple, then hear from heaven your dwelling place. Forgive and act, deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts, for you alone know every human heart, so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our ancestors. As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel, but has come from a distant land because of your name, for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm. When they come and pray toward this temple, then hear from heaven your dwelling place.

Do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your name. When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray to the Lord toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea and uphold their cause. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, during our toughest struggles and troubles we thank you for the assurance that you are with us and you hear our cries. We pray for those who are hurting today. May they hear you whispering in their ear, I am here. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening. My name is Joyce Dinkins and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.