In Ezekiel 8, the prophet was allowed to witness blatent rebellion in the form of idolatry at the center of Jewish worship. God responded at the end of the chapter with this statement, “Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.”

What struck me is that God made the deliberate decision to not listen to his people. As a believer in the new covenant, it is hard to imagine a God who chooses not to listen.

God demonstrates his love for his believers is by listening.

It’s pretty amazing to think of how he chooses to listen to believers. He chooses to always be available. He is not a doctor who is always running late for appointments. Although he is always working, he is not too busy to give us his full attention.

It’s not just that he listens, but he also responds. Our community group has been intentionally spending more time in pray for the last month. Not surprisingly, there are new updates each week of how God responds. Last night was no different, and it seemed everyone had an update that related to our prayers.

That led me to wonder if our prayers effected the outcome. In other words, did our prayers change God’s plan? This is an impossible question to answer because only God could know the “what ifs.” What I do know is that we would not have been ready to recognize the activity of God if we had not prayed. By taking the time to pray, it allowed us to fellowship with God and find joy because we know that he heard us.

Many people in this world worship a god who is not the God of the Bible. They offer prayers, but are never heard. They have no hope of a response. Remember to pray for them.