Can’t You Hear Me Now?
James 4:2
James 4:2
“…ye have not, because ye ask not.”
(KJV)
A 24-year-old man literally dreamed of the phone number of his future wife one night and then, driven by his instinct, sent her a text message. Random recipient Michelle Kitson first appeared confused when she saw a message on her phone from an unknown number that read, "Did I meet you last night?"
However, the 22-year-old woman chose to reply to David Brown’s text message and their romance kicked off. "It was really weird but I was absolutely hooked," Kitson told the Daily Mail newspaper.
After a couple of face-to-face meetings they fell for each other and decided to marry each other ending their long courtship period. Brown, who is six foot seven inches tall, took Kitson, who is just five foot four for a honeymoon in the Indian resort of Goa.
"I’ve no idea how I ended up with her number in my head -- it’s only a few digits different from mine," Brown told the British newspaper.
I saw an unusual sight the other day. An antique object by today’s communications standards – a pay phone!
Cell phones have changed the world! More than one out of every two Americans owns a cell phone... 180 million of us are now "hooked on" them. The U.S. Census Bureau reported last month, the percentage of households with landline telephones has declined while the number of cell phone increased. From 1998 to 2003, the percentage of households with landline telephones fell from 96.2 to 94.1. In the same five-year period, the percentage with cell phones nearly doubled, from 36.3 to 62.8. Over the past 20 years cell phone ownership has increased massively, to the point where over 80% of the world’s population has cell phone coverage. The technology needed to provide adequate signal has not kept up with demand, which is why 69% of Americans have experienced dropped calls and poor signal.
Tom McNichol says he can authoritatively say that people are talking more and saying less. The three most common phrases in cell phone conversations are, "What did you say?", "You’re breaking up; I’ll have to call you back,” and “Can you hear me now?”
Have you ever had a cellphone call dropped? While most companies will credit you for dropped calls, you may spend many minutes simply talking to yourself. And then, have you ever lost the connection and tried to call the person back, only to reach their voicemail because they think they are still on the phone talking to you? In those times, maybe the thing to say is, “Can’t You Hear Me Now?”
When it comes to prayer, do you ever feel like you are talking away to God and the call gets dropped? Do you ever feel like asking the Lord,”Can’t You Hear Me Now?” What makes us lose the connection?
1) Straying too far from the Tower
Mobiledia.com’s guide to Cell phone reception states that “signal strength fades the farther a user strays from the tower.” When you get too far away from the “Tower”, reception becomes weaker. We lose “signal strength”. We don’t have enough “bars”! We are too far away. We need to get closer to the Tower!
Proverbs 18:10
10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.
(NIV)
We sing it and the scripture says it! When it comes to prayer, the question to ask is, “How is your relationship with God?” Does your lifestyle show that you have signal strength with the Tower?
Proverbs 15:29
29 The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
(NIV)
Proverbs 28:9
9 God has no use for the prayers of the people who won’t listen to him.
(The Message)
2) The problem may be corrosion!
Generally, non-repairable internal corrosion of parts results if you get the phone wet or use wet hands to push the buttons. My daughter, Julie, has a cell phone that was unrepairable because it had gotten wet. I’ve even heard of people expecting their cell phone to continue to work after dropping it in water! If the phone does get wet, be sure it is totally dry before you switch it on so you can try to avoid damaging internal parts.
Psalm 66:18
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;
(NIV)
Spiritual corrosion happens when we allow sin to remain unconfessed.
The word translated “cherished” is one of the most commonly used words in the Old Testament, appearing over 1300 times. The root of the word means “to see”, as if to gaze upon, to look intently at something, to take a second look! In other words, we are not talking about a passing thought; we are talking about “hanging onto” and “hugging the sin”, treating it as if God doesn’t care.
Sin demands total possession of a man. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more disastrous is the isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person.
Zechariah 7:13
13 "’When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty.
(NIV)
A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard.
Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.
The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.
As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.
After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.
He said, "I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the ’What Would Jesus Do’ bumper sticker, the ’Choose Life’ License plate holder, the ’Follow Me to Sunday-School’ bumper Sticker, And the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, Naturally...I assumed you had stolen the car!”
3) Lack of power
Cell phones are essentially low-power two-way radios which use low-power transmitters to carry the signal to the tower and back to the phone. If your cell phone had more power the signal could reach towers farther away from you. It would also become warmer with use. And wear out quicker.
Our “two-way” radio with our Strong Tower is powered by Faith! Faith in God provides just the right amount of power for proper reception of answers to prayer!
Matthew 21:22
22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."
(NIV)
I John 5:14-15
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears us-- whatever we ask-- we know that we have what we asked of him. (NIV)
James 1:6-8
6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
(NIV)
A double-minded man is emotionally divided, almost as if he had two souls. That kind of person is in a civil war. On the one side, he wants God’s will and on the other, he wants his will. He’s bobbing around in prayer like a cork in a pond. Double-mindedness makes a person unstable and incapable of hearing from God or receiving His gifts.
When you pray, do you pray like Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane?
Luke 22:42
42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me;
yet not my will, but yours be done."
(NIV)
People often go to doctors whose names they cannot pronounce, receive prescriptions they cannot read, get those prescriptions filled by pharmacists they have never seen, and go home and take medicine they do not understand! All because they trust the doctor!
Faith says, “I will trust you God, no matter what the outcome may be!”
4) The problem may be the network, not the phone!
Cell call quality depends more on your network than on your phone. Most networks operate independently of one another, using their own frequencies and constructing their own cell phone towers. Chances are if the signal is bad with one network you can improve by switching.
We get to the place of asking God if He can hear us now when the motive behind our prayer need switching.
James 4:3
3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
(NIV)
How can you discern if the network needs to be switched, if you are asking God for something but your motives are not right? Ask the question: Who will benefit the most if God answers my prayer the way I am praying? Who is going to get the glory?
John 14:13
13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
(NIV)
The previous prayer problem dealt with God’s will; this one deals with God’s way. Do you find yourself praying for something that you are sure is in the realm of God’s will (“Give us this day our daily bread”) but you tell God HOW He is to give it to you? The giving and the avenue by which you receive the gift is all up to God, not you!
When you are talking on the cell phone while traveling in the car, you will bounce from tower to tower. The decision of which tower carries your call is not up to you; it is the will of the network you use and their cooperative plan with other carriers in the area! When you are on the phone, you really don’t care which company is carrying your sweet voice to the other party; your only concern is carrying on the conversation!
