Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place. (2 Chronicles 6:40) Solomon asks God to remember the people and the place that He chose, and there to receive graciously all who turn to Him. Let me tell you the story behind this prayer: Solomon finally constructed the Temple of God and He is thanking God and praising God and worshiping God and beseeching God. Solomon built a magnificent Temple for God. Just look at all the intricate designs in the picture below.

  The point Solomon was making to God was simple: listen to us when we pray here at your house, whether or not we are worthy of being heard. Isn’t that how we feel sometimes? We pray and hear nothing back from God. We feel ignored by God. We want God to hear us when we actually make it to church to pray. However, the great sense of doubt that creeps up on us when we pray and nothing seems to happen, that’s a real feeling that often bites at us when we are feeling unworthy. In fact, we attribute the fact that God doesn’t seem to be listening to how “sinful” we are. When we read the entirety of this passage, we notice something about the people whom Solomon calls out to God for: they are no better than us and most of the time described as having a fate and a plight far worse than our own. The type of people that Solomon wants God to hear are of the following types: people who wrong their neighbors; people who are defeated; those afflicted by drought and pestilence; the foreigner; the enemies of God; and the sinner. Solomon asks God to hear these people specifically when they go to the Temple to pray to God. If Solomon can make a prayer request like that, can’t we also make a similar request upon God? To hear us sinners from heaven because we are in the good graces of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings? If you feel llike you’re being ignored because God is keeping His eyes and ears closed to your prayers, I want you to just shout louder toward God in prayer because God has chosen you to be the temple where He dwells. He is listening.