He Showed Up! How to Get God to Listen

He Showed Up!: How to Get God to Listen

I never fully understood the scripture, "In Your presence is fullness of joy..." (Psalm 16:11 ESV) until I had a personal encounter...

One day, while attending a small prayer meeting, the leader of the group instructed each person to pray specific requests, and I was asked to start it off. So, Ready... Aim... My target was in sight, and like a shooter with unlimited bullets, I was about to let it rip. But just as I began to clear my throat, The Holy Spirit reminded me that the best way to start each conversation is with thanksgiving. You see, it's easy for us to bombard heaven with our requests, concerns, and worries. Therefore this time, I made a conscious choice to lead off our session with praise (Psalm 100). The others joined in and within moments, our extollment had grown stronger and louder. Joy and awe for The Lord saturated the place. Fifteen minutes later, we STILL had not gotten to our first request! Instead, something more incredible had happened. I got a strong awareness/sense that Jesus was standing in the center of our prayer circle. In complete amazement I shouted excitedly, "He showed up! He showed up! He showed up!!!" I was elated because our praise so invoked His actual attendance. We had our own agenda at first, but once we felt His presence nothing else mattered but Him.

For the life of me though, I could not understand why I became so worked up until my mind took me to instances in our lives when we would have that same feeling:

-A toddler hearing their parents' voices as their keys turn the door (pure joy) -Seeing firefighters run towards you after you've called for them (hope) -Watching the mail-deliverer walk towards your door with the package you've been waiting for (relief)

We get excited when that person shows up because we know that that person has the solution to our troubles!

While God is always present, when we praise Him, He awakens us to His tangible presence and love, and that is precisely what happened that day. Within moments, God came to let us know with confidence that He cares and is concerned about what concerns us. He was there to keenly listen, fill us with unexplainable joy, and set into motion the solutions we needed. The scripture is right like usual... In His presence IS indeed complete joy!

Today I encourage you to praise God like crazy, before you tell Him of your wants and needs. Lavish Him with words of admiration and love. Praise Him before rattling off your extensive list. When you honor Jesus with a sincere and pure heart first, He shows up! And where He is, gifts, answers, and blessings follow :) So... "Make a joyful noise unto The Lord... come before His presence with singing. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." Psalm 100:1-2,4

Sweetly Smitten,

Michelle Nicole

Fun Fact! The inception of SmittenbyHim occured during this prayer meeting :)

#prayerrequest #hope #plans #faith