“You ate it!?!”

Feet stomped up the stairs, a door slammed, and muffled cries came from my daughter's bedroom. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, my husband was making dinner and wiping crumbs from his face, cupcake crumbs. Crumbs from the last cupcake that had belonged to my youngest daughter - the one crying upstairs.

Yesterday, he had told her she could have it, then today he ate it.

She didn’t understand. 

I knew her pain. I distinctly remember there was a 24-hour rule when I was growing up if we had sweets in the house and it was laying around we had 24 hours to eat it or it was free game and any dibs on it or sharpie written names expired. This rule, however, had not been established in my house. 

Tracing her steps I gently knocked on the door, "it’s Mom can I come in". She mumbled something. Her head was buried under the pillow and she peeked out at me. Her tear-streaked face was puffy and her lips were pouty. 

“I’m sorry Dad ate your cupcake, that was wrong." How did it make you feel?"

Some of her feelings we ones I expected:

• She was hurt. 
• She felt disrespected.
• She felt like he did it on purpose.
• She felt ignored. She told him it was her cupcake. She tried to explain why she hadn’t eaten it yet.
• She felt like he didn’t care about her or what she had to say.

But the one that struck me the most; she felt unheard.  

Have you ever felt unheard?

You’re having a conversation and the person you’re talking to just isn’t getting it. Or doesn’t want to. What you are saying is flying right over their heads. You may even wonder if you’re speaking the same language at all. 

Have you ever felt unheard by God?

Maybe you’re embarrassed to admit it.

You’ve prayed and prayed.

And NOTHING.

You’ve wondered why your prayers aren’t being answered.

You wonder if he even hears you.

You wonder if you are even worthy. 

David was there too, he actually says, "Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth." (Psa 54:2).

In our modern-day slang, this would be the equivalent of “GOD, DO YOU HEAR THE WORD THAT ARE COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH?”

I just love David for his raw honesty.

We are not alone.

There are actually 9, NINE times, in the Bible where someone, either David, or Solomon, or Nehemiah, is asking "HEAR MY PRAYER"

This is clearly a pattern, one we need to take notice of, because after each one of these times where the heart cries out DO YOU HEAR ME, something shits.

So what happened?

Each and every time, after “Do you hear me” is asked, they then turn their heart TOWARD God’s faithfulness and remind both themselves, and God, of what God has done in the past.

That’s the key for us…when we don’t feel like we’re being heard, when it feels like our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.  It is then we need to turn to praising God for what he has done already.

Right in the middle of our mess, we shift our strategy from prayer to praise. 

Worship is our biggest weapon.

When we praise God for who he is and what he has done and a shift happens.

We begin to take our eyes off of our circumstances and put them on the power of God.

And when we begin to declare the power of God - in what he has done and what CAN do again we open up our circumstances for God to move.

So yes, God hears you… Psalms 55:16-17 says  "As for me, I call to God, and the LORD saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.

And before you even prayed God knew Psa 139:1-4 declares  You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. 

I heard Bill Johnson say, "if we are praying and we don’t come out changed, then we weren’t praying we were complaining."

OUCH!

If you need to level up your prayer life, you aren’t alone. Get the declarations and bring some power back into your prayers.  Get them here: Declarations