The Lord Bends His Ear to Hear, Mama

Tonight I will share a special story with you. I will remind you that God wants to hear your prayers. 

Transcript

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Good evening, Mama, and welcome back to Midlight, Your Light in the Middle of the Night. I want to start tonight with a little story about another one of my children, and it has to do with a little one named Lillian. And when she was in my belly at 35 weeks, they decided they needed to deliver her because she had what was known as IUGR, which is inner uterine growth restriction. Basically, they thought she was no longer growing in my belly, so they needed to deliver her early. When she came at 35 weeks, the doctor told me we look for reasons to keep babies at this age, like in the NICU. But she's doing so well, I think it's fine for her to go home with you. And she was over five pounds, which for me was usually full-term baby weights, but she was perfectly healthy. So they got her ready and did all the testing. And then something happened. During her hearing testing, she did not pass. And I noticed that Lillian was different than the other babies I had had. She didn't cry very much. And the nurses would always comment and say, Oh, she's so quiet, what a sweet little girl. But honestly, I wondered if something was not quite right. And when you turned off the light, she would really cry. So she did not pass her hearing screening. They brought us in a few more weeks later and they did another hearing screening and again she did not pass. I noticed that nothing made her turn her face towards me. I could clap my hands or snap my fingers and she just did not respond. So we went on to bigger testing. We were living in Texas at the time, and I had to take her to Dallas Children's Hospital, where they did more testing. And they said finally, she is a beautiful little girl, but she is not hearing. And by this point, she was almost four months old. So I had decided that that would be what Lillian was. She just was not going to be able to hear. And it made me very sad because she would cry in the car and I would speak to her softly, or I would say, It's okay, Lillian, Mama's here, she loves you. And then I realized she cannot hear me. And I realized she would never hear singing or things like that, and it broke my heart. But we started to learn sign language and we started to prepare ourselves for a life with Lillian without hearing. And then one day a friend of mine who was actually in the room when she was born asked me, Jessica, have you prayed about her hearing? And I looked at her and I said, Honestly, I'm afraid to pray for her hearing. Because what if God does not answer me with a yes? And what if I am disappointed enough that I'm scared to pray for anything else? But my friend, she encouraged me to pray, and so I began to pray. Heartfelt, I trust you, Lord, prayers. And I prayed for her, and then all of a sudden one day my friend came to visit, and I had little Lillian on the changing table, and my friend was standing next to me, and she said, Jessica, take her back to children's hospital. She is hearing. I had noticed some changes in Lillian, but I was afraid to believe it actually. So I did it. I took her back to Children's Hospital where they tested her hearing one more time. And what was interesting was this time the lady came in and she said, Jessica, she is not hearing at a normal volume. And I said, That's okay. As long as she's hearing at all, that would be wonderful. And she said, No, Jessica, you don't understand. She is hearing at a very high rate, like her hearing is better than yours and mine. And all I could do was smile because I knew the Lord had healed her. And I share that story with you tonight because it was a time in my motherhood when I was afraid to pray for fear of the answer that would come. I did not know that God would heal her and that he would say yes. And the truth is, mama, sometimes we get a yes from the Lord, and sometimes we get a no, and sometimes we even get a wait. I almost hesitated to share this story with you as the Lord prompted me to today, because I recognize that not every prayer request is answered with a yes. Not everybody who has a baby who is not hearing, their ears will be opened. This was Lillian's story. This was the way God chose to answer that prayer request of mine as a mother. And I will go back and remind you that in this story I had very little faith at times, and normally I consider myself to be a girl with pretty big, strong faith. But that was a story in my motherhood where truly I'm being honest with you. I struggled, and with the encouragement of a friend, I thought, you know what? I'm gonna let my faith grow bigger. I'm going to use the faith of a mustard seed, and I'm going to ask the Lord to increase my faith, and I am going to trust him for the answer for her ears. Well, Lillian is 10 years old now, and I'll tell you something. She is not allowed to tell me she does not hear me when I call her, because we all know that the Lord gave her very special ears to hear. In fact, sometimes I wonder if she'll grow up to be a singer or something, because she can hear decibels and frequencies that we can't hear. It's almost a little comical when she says, Mom, that's loud, that hurts my ears. I smile a little bit because I remember the prayer request and how the Lord so graciously answered me. Sometimes God does things that I just don't feel quite worthy of. And I want to share a verse with you from Psalms 9 verse 10, and it says And those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. God did not forsake me, and he will not forsake you either, Mamma. There were many prayers I asked that the Lord gave me a no or a wait, but Lillian is a beautiful example of God's mercy and grace, and that he bends his ear down to hear us when we pray. Psalm one hundred sixteen in verse one says, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications, because he has inclined his ear to me. Therefore I will call upon him as long as I live. I'm thankful I got to spend some time with you tonight, Mamas. What an honor it has been. I feel like I'm supposed to encourage you that if there is a place in your life where you are holding back asking the Lord for something because you are afraid of the answer, just remember that the Lord cares about your prayers and that he leans down to hear them. It may not always be a yes, sometimes it might be a wait or a no, but just remember that God has his best for you. So whatever prayer request you give, you can remember that God's best is for you, that he loves you and his heart is with you, and he wants to hear all that you have to say. Thank you, Mama, for listening tonight to this story. I pray, may the Lord bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you. Be gracious unto you and give you peace. Amen. Until next time, Mama. Take care.