I really thought I would never dissuade people from the use of headphones!

 I was a headphone maniac as a child.  It was my only privacy, growing up.  I believe that the wonder of learning to listen happened to me as I spent hours and hours borrowing my father's wonderful earphones.  I got homework done and escaped arguments and cooled down from arguments in my wonderland of musical delight.

We didn't each have a device, like people now have.  So all of our music and entertainments were shared.  That is a real loss, I think and trying to find common ground musically and entertainment wise is a real effort now that each person has his or her own device and entertainment playlist.

I have been thinking about how this builds walls of gaps in our communication.  We must try to bridge those gaps and grow together, in spite of the difficulty.  One of my dearest memories of my father, who is long gone are the trips in the car and the long and not always desired speeches about this and that topic.  I didn't really ever want to hear what he had to say.  But these many years later, the memory of them is all I have of him.

I am only saying this to you because you are missing a great amount of delightful providence of having your daddy carrying you to and from work.  You can close your ears and go into your mental prep for work and that is great, but every once in a while stop and smell the roses of a moment with a man who loves you deeply and always has something to say to you that is just for you!  Don't miss it! 

Are you listening to God when you pray?

 Prayer is an expression of my heart.  Why should I listen to God when I pray?  Some prayers don't take that much thought, it is true, but all too often we are praying just to hear ourselves commit something to God.  That is a superstitious effort.

I am not sure that superstitious prayer is heard in Heaven.  God is sovereign and I am not Him.  But the Bible talks about Elijah who was a man of like passions as we are and God answered Him to shut up Heaven to His normal provision of rain to the people.  God was showing off to the people of that time that He had Elijah's back.  What an amazing relationship to have with God that He wants to show off for you?  

He was a regular person and he was not our Lord and Savior.  Jesus is our intercessor and He takes to primitive grunts of our prayers and makes sense of them to the infinite God of the Universe.  God has no impurities and cannot even look at impurity, but He carried our sins and our griefs on the cross to pay the penalty of sin and open a pathway for our prayers to be heard and answered from Heaven.  Not for our glory, but for the Glory of God!  What a Savior!

Do I take this infinite truth into consideration enough, when I am praying to God?  Do I consider the infinite cost that my privilege of prayer cost our Savior?  Do I think about my desires in the light of what God has revealed from Heaven about Himself and His purposes for all His people?  I want to fullfill your plan for my life, Lord.  Help me through prayer to be one who advances your kingdom and not one who is a stumblingblock.  In Jesus' Awesome Name. Amen.