Is God Listening?

Dr. Ralph D. Nichols of the University of Minnesota once told of a moment every public speaker dreads. He was addressing a high-school commencement when suddenly a child began to cry. Then another joined in. A small boy galloped up and down the aisle chased by another. With sinking heart, Dr. Nichols realized he had lost his audience.

He tried everything — speaking louder, telling a funny story, pacing the stage, fixing his eyes on the source of the noise. Nothing worked. Finally, he tried one last desperate trick: he found one good listener. An elderly gentleman in the front row was smiling, nodding, and looking up attentively. Nichols focused every word toward that one man. Slowly, the chaos settled and he salvaged his speech.

Afterward, at the reception, he told the principal, “Please introduce me to that wonderful man on the front row.”

The principal smiled awkwardly. “I can, but it might be tricky,” he said. “The poor old fellow is stone deaf.”

All that energy — all that sincerity — directed toward a man who couldn’t hear a word.

And maybe that’s how some of us feel about prayer. We talk, we plead, we pour our hearts out… and it seems like heaven is silent. Is God listening?

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The Circle of Renewal

Dwight L. Moody once said if you want revival, go home, lock yourself in your room, draw a circle on the floor, kneel down inside it, and ask God to start the revival inside that circle. When He answers that prayer, revival has begun.

That’s where renewal always starts — not in a conference, not in a campaign, not even in a church board meeting. It starts in one heart that refuses to stop praying.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “We give thanks to God always for you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers.” The first-century church had no cathedrals, no budgets, no live streams, and no social media strategy. They had something better — they prayed. And somehow, a praying people turned the world upside down.

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Against All Odds

Their odds were impossible. Within a few years of Pentecost, believers were being hunted, jailed, or scattered. Yet the fire spread. Someone was praying.

Today, persecution hasn’t disappeared. It’s just changed addresses. In parts of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, underground churches still whisper hymns so softly that guards won’t hear. In China, entire congregations rotate meeting places weekly so they can keep gathering. And somehow, faith keeps growing in the very places it’s most dangerous to believe.

Prayer doesn’t make the world safer — it makes believers stronger.

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Signs of Revival Today

Every generation has its “Upper Room,” and sometimes God surprises us with fresh wind from heaven.

Two years ago, thousands of young people gathered spontaneously for days of worship and repentance at Asbury University in Kentucky. The revival spread to other campuses. Nobody organized it; nobody marketed it. Students simply stayed to pray — and heaven listened.

Then this summer, reports came from Hope Rally 2025 in St. Louis — hundreds baptized, dozens more surrendering their lives to Christ, and churches across the city joining hands in nightly prayer. In August, the PDX Crusade filled the Moda Center in Portland — one of America’s least-churched cities — with worship and testimony.

Across the Atlantic, headlines from the Guardian and Bible Society UK talk of a surprising resurgence of faith among British youth. And in Africa, church membership keeps climbing faster than population growth.

Some say, “Revival is coming.” I believe it’s already peeking through the cracks. Somebody’s been praying again.

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A World on Edge

The world feels fragile — one global jolt away from unraveling. Wars rage in Ukraine and the Middle East. Wildfires and floods erase entire towns. Screens shout bad news faster than our hearts can process it. Young people scroll through oceans of despair and call it normal.

The old “Doomsday Clock” once measured humanity’s proximity to nuclear annihilation; today, it might measure emotional exhaustion. But here’s the truth: God’s church has lived on the edge before — and prayer was always her lifeline.

We can run, but we can’t hide. Somebody has to pray.

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What Prayer Really Is

Maybe part of the problem is that we’ve forgotten what prayer is.

In one of those old Family Circus cartoons, the boy says, “My football’s flat. I don’t know if I should pray, write Santa, or call Grandma.” That’s how some of us treat God — as one more name on our contact list for when we need something.

Prayer is not a heavenly vending machine where we press the right buttons and hope for the right outcome. Prayer is relationship. It’s being present before the Presence.

When Abraham Lincoln was President, his little boy once burst into the White House, his face streaked with tears after a playground fight. A guard asked, “Do you want to see the President of the United States?” The boy sobbed, “No, I want to see my father.”