Have you ever been in a crowded, noisy restaurant and you were trying to hear what someone was saying at the table with you, and so you leaned your body and your head in really close and maybe even cupped your hand behind your ear in order to hear? You gave your full, undivided attention and were doing everything you could to hear what was being said.
Forget about the noisy restaurant and just think about that posture of leaning in, tilting your head and giving full attention. That is what God does toward us when we pray. It’s not because He’s having a hard timing hearing us but because of His strong desire to hear every utterance of our hearts. Four times in the Psalms, the writers plead, “Incline Your ear to me” (17:6; 71:2; 88:2; 102:2), as well as in the parallel passages of 2 Kings 19:16 and Isaiah 37:17.
How blessed we are that our Lord inclines His ear to hear our words! Now, do we incline our ears to hear His words (Josh. 24:23; Psa. 119:36; Isa. 55:3)?