Capacity

 I prayed, but heard nothing.  This can be quite common an experience in prayer, especially for the beginner, who is pure need.  We think that God did not answer or ignored us, or does not exist.  But maybe we simply have not acquired the capacity to listen.  We have all met people who simply do not have the capacity to listen to another.  Such people “do not take incoming calls.”  What does one do who wants to run a 10K race?  They don’t have the capacity to do it now.  It is just a desire, a goal.  So you begin to train.  You run a little each day or every other day.  Gradually you work up to a distance that allows you to actually run a 10K race.  So it is in prayer.  You have not the capacity to listen, to have the ear of the heart to access the response of God.  So you begin to pray each day and in time, deepen the prayer with practice.  You learn to listen to the still, soft voice of God in the depth of your heart.  Our intentions in prayer become purer.  We begin to pray out of love and not out of need to get some “results,” some answers.