The Inclining Ear
“I love the Lord, because He has heard My voice and my supplications. 2 Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.” Psalm 116:1-2
The Psalmist knows that the Lord has heard his prayer, and always hears his prayers. In verse 2 it states that The Lord “inclines” His ear to hear us. What a wonderful picture that is for us. The Lord is making an effort to hear our prayers. He is always inclined towards us with that ear to hear us. The Psalmist has become so confident in this fact because of his history with the Lord that the Psalm writer states that both now and in the future, he will call upon the Lord. He knows that when he calls out to the Lord, He will hear because His ear is inclined to us.
It is interesting to see this same word “inclined” in another verse. In Isaiah 26:3 we read this in the Amplified Bible: “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.”
This is a verse that we are familiar with. It tells us that He will keep us in His perfect peace when our minds are stayed upon Him. As you will notice in the Amplified Bible, it uses the word “inclination”. So that peace of God that will guard us and keep us in His perfect peace, comes when our minds are inclined to Him. Isn’t that interesting? Our minds have to be inclined to Him, which is not the natural state of man. It is an effort that we have to put forth. We have to incline our minds towards Him and keep our minds there, with Him. However, His ear is always inclined to us! It takes no effort on His part because it is His natural inclination.
He is always listening to the words that we speak. He is listening for us to speak words that will line up with His Word. Then He can move through those words we speak to bring about the victory and overcoming that are in His promises to us. He is waiting and listening and when we speak those Words of faith He is ready to move through them to our good and His glory.
He is inclined to our words, are we also inclined to His? Is our mind inclined to be upon Him and His Word? If it is not then we will not be able to operate in that faith, we will not be inclined to speak those Words that He can move through. The inclination of His ear is set towards us, always, waiting so He can move on our behalf and for our good. Too often our minds are set to a different inclination, they are set and stayed in the world and that will never produce the results we desire.
Let’s endeavor to learn to have our minds so they are inclined to hear His Word.
J Todd Hostetler