LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Babies cry. It’s the primary way they can communicate for the first few months of their lives. It’s God’s gift to them and to the baby’s parents. It’s hard for the parents to accept this gift at 3:00 AM, but nonetheless it is a gift. Love hears the need not the annoyance. Love focuses on the person not on the imperfections of the communication.

This truth thrills my soul when I meditate on it from a spiritual perspective. Many times I must appear to my Father in heaven as a crying baby, vocalizing nothing but murmurs and groanings. Yet with ears of love He hears my deepest need. He answers me according to His lovingkindness.

Psalm 119:149 “Hear my voice according to your steadfast love;”

Charles Spurgeon writes this in his classic work entitled “The Treasury of David.” “When God hears prayer according to his lovingkindness he overlooks all the imperfections of the prayer, he forgets the sinfulness of the offerer, and in pitying love he grants the desire though the suppliant be unworthy. It is according to God’s lovingkindness to answer speedily, to answer frequently, to answer abundantly, yea, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think.”

Our hearts long to know the surrender of our will to the extent that we fully trust the lovingkindness of the Father. Questions arise in our minds and are answered as soon as they are asked:

• When are we ever worthy of asking the Lord for anything?
• When have we earned the answer we seek?
• Are not all our prayers to be voiced with this attachment – answer me according to your lovingkindness?
•  Is this not the only way we can be assured of any answer at all?

“Father, teach us to pray with the humble cries of a child. Teach us that it is not in our abilities and perfections that we receive your grace and love, but in our brokenness that you hear us and extend your lovingkindness. Grant us the faith to understand that your love surpasses our weakness and inabilities, and that only good answers come from your heart, and only answers that come from your heart are good for us. Thank you for hearing us with your ears of love! Amen.”

Pastor John