I was reading this morning how God hears — and now I need to incline my ears. 🙏
Le's morning reading showed her that God hears. The Spirit turned the mirror: now incline yours. The listening is mutual. Two hearts listening to each other. The silence that is eloquent and mutually understood.
Seven Scriptures in two movements — God's ear toward us, and our ear toward God. The whole relationship of prayer — in one word: incline.
✦ Movement I — God Inclines His Ear to Us
"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."
The psalmist loves the Lord — because He heard. Because He inclined His ear. The infinite God bending down, tilting His ear toward the small voice. Not standing at a distance. Leaning in.
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. Because He leaned in once — the soul calls forever. The mornings are the calling. The devotional is the evidence that God's ear is still inclined.
"I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God; incline Your ear to me, and hear my speech."
"Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily; be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense to save me."
David's prayers — incline Your ear. Bow down Your ear. The boldness of asking the Creator to lean in. For You will hear me. Not maybe. You will. God is the kind of God who bows down. Who leans toward the small voice.
Psalm 91: He shall call upon Me, and I will answer. The inclining is the posture of the answering God. He answers from nearness. The ear already inclined before the prayer begins.
✦ Movement II — We Incline Our Ear to God
"Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live."
The most powerful "incline" — from God's mouth. God Himself asking the soul to lean in. Incline. Come. Hear. Your soul shall live.
Not your mind shall understand. Your soul shall live. The ear turned toward God — the soul lives. David's dry land: como a terra árida, tenho sede de ti. The inclining is the thirsting. The hearing is the rain. The soul that hears — lives.
"My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart;
for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh."
Incline your ear — and keep the words in the midst of your heart. Fénelon's truths like dye into wool. The inclining is the daily turning. The keeping is the daily dwelling.
The promise: life. Health. The mornings — inclining the ear, keeping the words in the heart — are life and health. Really.
"Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your own people also, and your father's house."
The most searching "incline" — it requires forgetting. Fénelon's out of self, into God. For the pilgrim ten days from leaving Caldas — incline your ear to the new thing God is doing. The ear cannot incline in two directions at once.
"Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge."
Incline your ear — and apply your heart. The listening and the applying. The inclining without applying is hearing without doing. Le's mornings are both: the ear inclined to the reading, the heart applied to the living. The journal is the record of the applying. The inclined ear that becomes the applied heart. 🙏
✦ The Mutual Inclining
God inclines His ear to us — and we incline ours to Him. Fénelon's sweet friendship: the eloquent silence, two hearts poured into one. The inclining is the posture of love.
Where the two ears meet — God's inclined toward us, ours toward Him — that is the secret place. That is the dwelling. That is the fellowship.
Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live. 🙏
Isaiah 55:3 spoke to me — the way you incline your hearing is by coming to Me.
How I long, Lord, for peace to be able to read Your Word and Your books. 🙏
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
Le connected two Scriptures most would never put together — and the connection is the truth of her whole season. The inclining IS the coming. Not two steps — one. The mornings are the coming. The reading is the inclining. The fellowship is the hearing. All one movement.
And her longing — how I long for peace to read — that longing IS the inclining. David's dry land: como a terra árida, tenho sede de ti. The thirst is the proof the ear is already turned toward the Fountain. The heart is still leaning toward Him.
And Matthew 7:13-14 — the narrow gate. The wide road says: skip the reading. The narrow road says: come to Me, incline your ear, hear, and your soul shall live. Le is on the narrow road. Packing by day. Longing for the Word. Bringing what she can to the evening lamp. That is the narrow gate — walked through tonight. 🙏
"How I long, Lord, for peace to be able to read Your Word and Your books."
Le · Caldas da Rainha · August 10, 2026 · The longing is the inclining — the narrow gate walked throughGod Inclines to Us
Because He inclined His ear to me, I will call as long as I live. The infinite God leaning toward the small voice.
We Incline to God
Incline your ear and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live. The inclining is life and death.
Keep in the Midst
Incline your ear — keep the words in the midst of your heart. Dye into wool. Life and health.
The Narrow Gate
The wide road says skip the reading. The narrow road says come to Me. The longing is the inclining. The narrow gate — walked through.