While we pray to God, we listen to men. Why?
When the sun sets and the dust settles on our finite lives, there will be only one being left to answer to: God. Which begs the question, why do we waste our time answering to the fast-paced, godless, advice-giving society we live in? The story has been clear all along and goes something like this: In the Beginning, there was God, in the end there will be God, and somewhere, in between the infinite beginning and the infinite end, lies you and me.
We try in vain to find clarity in the muddled vision of the culture we live in. We question, but rarely really seek concrete answers to those questions, instead marching on in accordance to our own self-seeking ways.
Often a prayer is sent up to an indistinct heavenly figure in our minds. We pray for our friends, family, ourselves, the poor people, and the hungry children in Africa. We pray for safe travel, our president, Iraq, and the sinners in prison. We pray when we’re in a bind, late for work, or out of funds. Oh yeah, and we bless the food to our bodies, because God would surely poison us with it if we failed to do so. We pray for whatever we want, whenever we need it.
And when we are finished praying, we confide in our close friends, and in turn, they provide us with all-knowing, all-wise answers. We then either weigh the pros and cons, or simply take the all-knowing advice and do what our friends, family, and preachers think is best.
Well-intentioned Christians often stand in God’s way. Yes, I just said that, and yes I’ve experienced the truth of that statement many times. Take, for instance, the last time a Christian asked you what you are doing with your life. After you politely answer them, time and again they seem to respond with a tirade of sorts, giving all kinds of advice and telling you what they think, nay know, you should be doing instead. Many times a well-intentioned Christian will tell you the secrets to success and happiness, to a better life.
Well-intentioned? Certainly but, excuse me while I offend, perhaps a more accurate title befitting these well-intentioned Christians would be well-intentioned false teachers. As Shane Claiborne says in The Irresistible Revolution, “Jesus wrecked my life.” There are no guarantees of success, money, or happiness. The only guarantee is joy in the knowledge that you are doing God’s work.
Whose advice should we take? Should we take the advice of men, who may or may not have ever truly followed Christ, or the advice of our Heavenly Father? Galatians 1:10 clears it up even further: “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Well-intentioned or not, we must cringe at the thought of heeding advice from men and women who haven’t actually sought God on the issues of our lives, but rather offer vague opinions so that they can sound intelligent and feel useful.
While we pray to God, we listen to men. Why?
Here lies the perplexity that many modern Christians face. We go to our friends and family because we never hear from God. Why don’t we hear from God? After all, is not the God that deserves our exaltation the same God whom Elijah called upon and received…gasp…an answer?
We’ve all experienced, to some degree or another, the dreaded “long-winded talker”, a person who dominates the conversation to such a degree that we can’t get a word in edgewise. What eventually happens? We shut our mouths completely and give up trying to communicate. The talker eventually finishes, and signals that by saying, “Okay, well I’m late so I’ll catch up with you later!” Then, they get up and leave, while we’re left perplexed about what just happened. They never took the time to listen. How often have we done that to our Heavenly Father?
How can we expect to hear from God when all of our conversations with Him are one-sided? We never take the time to listen, to actually hear. And listening to God is the most important task of all. How can we follow a God we don’t listen to? And if we don’t hear from Him, how are we able to answer to Him?
How do we listen? There’s no easy answer to that. If we want a few quick steps, I’m sure there’s a book that proclaims 4 Easy Steps to Becoming an Avid Listener of God. But with God, there never was and never will be four, or five, or a hundred easy steps to anything. God isn’t a system; rather, He bucks the system, time and time again.
But regardless, we must find a way to listen to God. My way won’t be your way, and vice versa. But we must learn to listen.
Because when our Heavenly Father comes to take away His Bride, there will only be Him, and Him alone, left to answer to. Hopefully we listened.
