Mark 7:31-36

31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

-Mark 7:31-36

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Have you ever struggled to listen to God in your prayer time? There are so many things going on with our lives and so many things around us that prevent us from giving our full attention to God. We know that we want to spend time in prayer but we very easily get distracted. So how can we focus and listen to God? In the passage, Jesus had to take the deaf man aside and away from the crowd first. Just like the deaf man, we also need to be away from the crowd and away from all the distractions. So as you’re doing your prayer time or devotionals, turn off your TVs, close YouTube on the background, try not to open that text you get in the middle of your prayer time or whatever it is that is diverting you away from spending time with Jesus. Jesus wants your undivided attention to him and to be with him fully so that he can come and touch you. 

Another less obvious distraction is everything that we are worried about or thinking about. There are so many things that go into our minds. Either we keep ranting to God or we keep asking about so many things that we forget who the center of our lives should be. All of a sudden when we interact we God we put ourselves in the center and start putting him aside. Because of the million things running in our heads, sometimes even when we do our prayer time every day we struggle to hear God and what he’s trying to tell us. Other times our prayer life even starts to become so dry we can’t listen anymore as if we are also deaf. But again we have to get rid of all these things that are distracting us, bring it to Jesus, and trust that he can and will open our ears again to hear him. 

Talking to God about our lives and our struggles is not bad. God wants you to talk to him and hear about your life. But we also have to remember that he wants you to not forget about him and to not push him aside. We are also called to just sit and listen to him. We need to realize that he is greater than any of our impediments. We should bring our whole selves to him and let him touch us. Let us come to him and let him open our ears so that we can listen to his word. As our ears open up and listen we can also start to speak of his love and his goodness and glory.