LEANING IN?

“You hear O LORD the desire of the afflicted, you encourage them and you listen to their cry.”
Sometimes we cannot even express our desire, there are no words that come from the place of the broken heart, however our God hears that cry.    That truly overwhelms and satiates my soul.

To me it is a picture of our heavenly Father leaning in, listening and waiting to respond to the needs of His beloved children.

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.

God, the Creator of the Universe, King of Kings, God Almighty, has positioned Himself to listen to the beings He created, whose life, it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

How little we really are in this thing called life, and how amazing is it that we serve a God that cares so deeply for us!  The littleness of our life makes me think of the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19.  He was a chief tax collector and he was rich. He sought to see who Jesus was, but he could not because of the crowd and because of his short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up a tree in order to see Him. When Jesus came to the place where Zacchaeus was He looked up, called to him by name, told him to quickly come down and invited Himself over to Zacchaeus’ home.

Zacchaeus was hungry to see Jesus; He was not satisfied with not seeing Him.  He made the extra effort to see Him.  He climbed a tree! 

I wonder if in our daily life we are hungry enough for change.  Are we hungry enough to do something different in our daily life to know Christ more? 

Do we value His Word… enough to position ourselves to listen, to see Him, to hear Him, to obey Him? What does that look like for us today?  Do we believe His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts?  Do we believe that His Word that goes forward from His mouth does not return void, but it will accomplish what He pleases, and that it shall prosper in the thing for which He sent it?

If we know that all these things are true, what is keeping us from being willing to position ourselves to listen to the Word of the LORD?  Are we willing to hear what God the Lord will speak?  Not rejecting or tossing aside His word but choosing to hear, receive and submit to it?

The work of God is to believe in the One whom He sent.  Am I willing to obey only when it is comfortable? Or does positioning myself to listen mean I am all in…all the time?

Remember in the story of Zacchaeus, Jesus called him by name, and He invited Himself over.    That encourages me.  He didn’t wait for an invitation.  He was eager to spend time with Zacchaeus.  That means He is eager to spend time with you and I.  How eager are we to spend time with Him?  Are we hungrily positioning ourselves for more? Are we leaning in?