Saturday, May 8

Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he will hear my voice.
—Psalm 55:17

God is always ready to hear our prayer. There are no rims or borders that can block the ears of God. Even time—that earthly reality through which we order and live our lives—has no jurisdiction over heaven. We know those rims and borders too well in human life. We “do” our lives by following the hands or digits on the clock, and feel all too often that there are not enough hours in a day.

So, one of the things that we quickly forego is prayer. We reserve our prayer time for when we are in church, or when we are in some crisis, or before we eat our meals. We are sure that God listens to us then, and we feel good about dedicating those times to communicating with heaven.

We might do well to take the Psalmist’s advice, however. Imagine speaking with the Holy One in the evening when the shades of day are drawn and we are preparing for sleep. Imagine praying when our eyes open to a new day of life.

Imagine stopping for a few moments in the heat of noontime—the heat of activity—to pray our way into the remainder of the day. We would find our hearts quieted, our spirits surging with gratitude, our souls centered in the breath of God.

O God, you are always ready to hear my prayer. Give me a heart that is always ready to pray.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2004.