Encouraging prayer God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything. On encouraging prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. Oh, I'm excited about today's episode because one of my favorite, really favorite topics, and that has to do with hearing.
The voice of God, a conversational intimacy with God. It is a treasure of treasures, James. And you know how much I love this idea. Yeah, I do, and I know it's so much a part of your life and my life. I was reading something uh this past week in a book that uh I know you love.
We've been talking a lot about George McDonald lately and his book At the Back of the North Wind, which is a children's book. Um I know that's one of your favorites. Oh, it definitely is. Definitely. There's a scene in the book, and this all happens in the Oh.
say what, mid 1800s? Mm-hmm. Uh where where there's a little boy whose name is Diamond. And He has neighbors who are quarreling. And it turns out that uh you know, the uh the the father is a cab man and Apparently one night he struck his wife and his wife is crying and The baby is screaming and Diamond hears all this commotion.
Um and he goes next door and he goes in and he And he does this unusual thing. Comforts. The baby. And, you know, it's a bad scene. The father has been drinking.
He just doesn't really know what he's. doing And um MacDonald describes it. He says, The father sat staring at nothing, neither asleep, Nor awake. not quite lost in stupidity either for Through it all he was dimly angry with himself. He did not know why.
It was that he had struck his wife. He had forgotten it, but was miserable about it notwithstanding. And this misery was the voice of the great love that's love with a capital L, as Macdonald puts it, that had made him and his wife and the baby and Diamond speaking in his heart and telling him to be good. And then McDonald adds this that I thought was fascinating. for that great love speaks in the most wretched and dirty hearts, Only the tone of its voice depends on the echoes of the place in which it sounds.
On Mount Sinai it was thunder. In the cabman's heart it was misery. in the soul of Saint John. It was perfect. blessedness.
And Robbie, it's that whole concept of The way we hear God has to do so much with the way we're living and the way we're approaching God. That I just dearly love. I thought it was profound. Oh yeah. And you know, we we even think about Um Those conversations, I hope, that you've had at one time or another in different circumstances.
Um and and I love, again, that that he's so creative. George MacDonald is Um Because Clearly he is a man that has experienced it, right? Right. Right. Yeah, he's a pastor and a writer and You know, he he wasn't um you know, particularly wealthy as a writer.
He often uh suffered from poverty and he he was a really uh Just He had a keen, insightful Uh View of of human character. And his writing about that, you know, again, it depends the way we hear the voice of God. Depends on the echoes of the place in which it sounds. Uh it it made me think of Psalm eighteen, which Psalm 18, verse 25 says, To the faithful, you show yourself faithful. To the blameless, you show yourself blameless.
To the pure, you show yourself pure. But to the devious or to the crooked, you show yourself Shrewd. And I thought, oh. And I began to think about the ways I had heard God or or hadn't heard God. And I realized that at those times where God seemed distant.
Well I have been distant. And at the time where um You know, I I longed for God to be tender. Maybe Maybe I hadn't been. as tender as I should be with him. And again, you know, the voice echoes.
You you think of Sinai and Here were these people who were rebelling against God and Um you know, what do they hear? They hear this thundering voice from the the top of the mountain. It's really a profound thought, isn't it? Right, because i i in its own way it's still the voice of love, like he said, with a capital L. That's saying Stop, I need to get your attention, you're hurting yourselves.
Right. Right. And so I I think the question is you know, if if we're not hearing the voice of God. And what do we mean by that? You know, the scripture says that Mm-hmm.
The Spirit affirms with our spirits we are God's children.
So we're not talking about an audible voice. We're talking about just this sense of belonging to God and uh you know, this this sense of of his presence. with us And And a voice is perhaps something of a metaphor to explain it. But It it works.
Well and you know, certainly is is That's kind of the way it it's applied in in scripture. as well. And so You know, Ask yourself that question. Does God seem distant to you? Where have you been?
you know, and I I just think it's, um, It's vital. You know, does God does God seem harsh to you? Have you been harsh? with others. You know, because Does God seem um close and tender and loving.
Well, perhaps you you've been close and tender and loving and and praising him. And uh I think this is a a really good place to camp out. That's a great point. It's fascinating that this period often as is in the same place at the same time. In in Psalm 22, there's a f really interesting if you really focus on what it says for a minute, you go, oh.
Because what he says is Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest Inhabitist or in the habits that praises of Israel. In other words, when you were praising he's at home. He's inhabiting that's where that's where he that's where he's staying. And so when we are truly thankful, when we really realize that he's so involved in our lives, and we begin to thank him for the things that he's bringing to our attention, et cetera, et cetera, then he's right there with you. He inhabits that.
Yeah. And he's always there. But the question is how, again, How in what tones? Do we hear his voice? Oh, it's so beautiful.
It's a great time to pray. Let's do it. Go ahead, Rob. Lord, thank you for this message today, and thank you that we can throw our arms around you. And we know that you're going to inhabit that.
You're going to be right there with us. Lord, I pray that we would think about your voice, that we would connect with you, that you would encourage us. to find that place. When we know that we desperately have failed. Help us to be transparent and open with you.
that we might again restore that tenderness in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website. JamesBanks.org or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina.
May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.
