“Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!”
Psalm 116:2
Have you ever noticed how a grown-up will get down on their knees to talk to a child? They bring it down a few notches to get eye level with the one they wish to engage. It allows face to face communication with a person of a distinctly different height and gets the child’s full attention. It also lets the child know they are heard.
I want my sons to realize that I think what they have to say is important. It’s so easy in the busyness of life to carry on a conversation with my children with my back turned. I may be cooking dinner or driving to football practice. For whatever reason, they are often talking to the back of my head although I may be listening intently.
But when I turn around and kneel down to their level, they hear a completely different message. They hear they are valued, important and dear to me. They know that I care about what they are saying at that very moment because I am focusing on them and tuning out all the distractions.
That is what the God who made the universe does every time we call out His name! The Psalmist writes, He bends down to listen! Can’t you just picture our Heavenly Father taking a knee, gently reaching for your shoulders, engaging with you for a face to face conversation?
You are so valued, important and dear to Him that He sent His only Son to reconcile you to Himself through Christ’s death on the cross. He cares about you and listens intently to every word you pray because Jesus came to open the pathway straight to the heart of God. Our mighty God emptied Himself of all but love to communicate to us (of distinctly different height) His amazing, unending, unfathomable love for us.
God has included this verse in His Word to encourage us that He hears our every prayer. May we pray to Him as long as we have breath!