She didn’t believe I could hear her. At the very least, I wasn’t paying attention and most certainly didn’t understand.
I was multitasking. My two-year-old sat on my lap while I played the piano and sang at 
worship team practice. For the most part, she sat patient and still during each of the songs. Every few minutes, she gave in to temptation and touched a piano key or two. Mostly, though, she simply sat and watched.
But then she began very quietly whispering in my face, “Paci. I want paci.”
I didn’t have her pacifier and wasn’t sure where it was. Besides that, I was pounding out chords on the piano and singing harmony all while whispering back to her, “Wait one minute. I’ll find it in a moment.”
Since I didn’t immediately pop a pacifier into her mouth, she decided that I hadn’t heard her. So, she said it louder. And again, even louder. “Paci! I want paci!!”
Still singing, still playing the piano, I looked her in the eye and said, “I know what you want. I’ll look in a minute.”
This was not acceptable to her.
At this point, she did the one thing a two-year-old who wants her pacifier could possibly do to make herself heard over all the music. She grabbed my microphone with her hands, placed her mouth right up to it, and said in her loudest announcer voice (who knew two-year-olds possessed such a thing?): “Paci. I want paci.”
That was an attention-grabber.
Have you ever felt like you needed a microphone to broadcast your prayers to heaven?
That God wasn’t aware of you, couldn’t hear you, wasn’t paying attention, and didn’t understand what you were going through?
That there was so much ambient noise, He couldn’t possibly hear the cries of your heart?
If anyone had reason to feel overlooked, ignored, unheard and unnoticed, it was the Israelite nation as they sweated and groaned their way through hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt.
And it’s clear that they weren’t silent sufferers. Instead, “the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help” (Exodus 2:23).
More important than the fact that they were crying out, though, is the fact that God was listening—even before they realized He was paying attention.
“And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. (Exodus 2:24-25, ESV).
I love how the Message breaks this thought down:
God listened to their groanings.
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
God saw what was going on with Israel.
God understood (Exodus 2:24-25, MSG).
God listened. God remembered. God saw. God understood.
Oh, sometimes we believe pieces of God’s character hold true. God may hear us pray, but He surely forgets His promises to us.
Or maybe He is faithful to keep His promises . . . but only when He is looking in our direction. Otherwise, we escape His notice.
Or maybe He hears our prayers and sees our situation, but doesn’t understand how desperate it really is and how hopeless we really are.
Yet, God’s character is no piecemeal buffet. It’s not changeable or uncertain. It’s not full of holes from the pieces proved false over time.
So, we can hold fast to this same truth as we groan in our own need, whether it be the annoyance of a daily stress, the repentance over a habitual sin, or the hardest of life’s challenges.
God hears us. God remembers His promises to us. God sees us. God understands.
And then He rescues.
His response to the cries of the enslaved nation was to call Moses to be their deliverer. Remember, though, that He had already placed every part of this plan into action over 40 years before.
He had rescued Moses from the murderous rampage of Pharaoh, who had every Hebrew baby boy killed at birth.
He had trained Moses as a prince of Egypt, schooled him in all of the sciences and rhetoric a leader of a nation might need.
He had watched over Moses as a refugee in the wilderness for decades.
And now, he called Moses up to active duty and sent him back to Egypt with a message for the hard-hearted Pharaoh, “Let my people go.”
God had been active for years before Israel ever saw the answer to their cries.
Just as the Psalmist wrote: “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether” (Psalm 139:4, ESV). Yes, the Lord hears our cries before they ever form on our lips and He knows our needs before we ever kneel before Him.
Because we know He hears, remembers, sees and understands, we can also declare with King David:
Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of His right hand” (Psalm 20:6, ESV).
God’s love for us and compassion for His people is all the microphone we need to broadcast our cries to heaven and to receive salvation from His mighty hand.
You can read more devotionals on this topic here:
Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer for www.myfrienddebbie.com and worship leader. Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness. To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.
Copyright © 2012 Heather King
Heather C. King - Room to Breathe 