Whose Problem is it?

I read the story about a man who was having difficulty communicating with his wife and concluded that she was becoming hard of hearing. So he decided to conduct a test without her knowing about it. One evening he sat in a chair on the far side of the room. Her back was to him, positioned where she could not see. Very quietly he whispered, "Can you hear me?" There was no response. Moving a little closer, he asked again, "Can you hear me now?" Still no reply; quietly he edged closer and whispered the same words, but still no answer. Finally, he moved right in behind her chair and said, "Can you hear me now?" To his surprise and chagrin, she responded with irritation in her voice, "For the fourth time, yes!" As with this story, when we have difficulty hearing the problem is not with God but with us! More often than not we find ourselves crying out, “God do you not care; do you not hear; are you not listening?” While we are bombarding God with questions, He is asking the same of us. “Do you not care?  Why do you not hear? I am speaking why are you not listening?” In essence God is always speaking but we do not always have the ability to hear.  What is it that dulls our spiritual ears to the point that we cannot hear the voice of the Master? With King Saul it was a spirit of rebellion. With Peter it was pride. With the Pharisees it was stubbornness. Added to these are a host of things that deafen the contemporary believer such as: busyness, distractions, presumption, and doubt just to name a few. However, the remedy for presumed silence is that of focus.  When we turn our attention to the creator of communication we suddenly begin to hear.  It is as if God fits each ear with a hearing aide which allows his voice to come through with the greatest clarity. So, if you are having problems hearing, nudge in real close to the Father and listen. Then and only then will you be able to detect whose problem it is.