Listening: June 5, 2013

TODAY’S WORD FOR WEDNESDAY JUNE 5, 2013.

LISTENING

DEFINITION:

Hear attentively; pay heed.

SCRIPTURE:

Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you: O Israel, if you would listen to Me. Psalms 81: 8 

Man’s steps are ordained by the Lord. How then can man understand His way? Proverbs 20:24.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

One of the most important lessons we can learn in life is how to listen to God. In our complex and even hectic lives, nothing should be more important, more urgent, more necessary, and nothing more rewarding to a believer in Jesus Christ than hearing what God has to say to us.

Most of the time, we as believers, get so preoccupied by our work and schedule that we do not take time to listen to what God has to say to us. Let us remind you that listening to God demands a two way conversation. It involves both talking and listening. Most of us talk a lot to God but do very little listening.

The Bible assures us that God does speak to us today. In Hebrews 1:1-2 it says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.” Our God is not silent. He is alive and active. He speaks to us individually, through His Word, in a way that we can hear Him, receive His message, and obey Him. We see in the scriptures that God can speak to us through visions, symbols and parables. He will communicate to us in a way we will understand.

In the Old Testament God spoke to Isaiah in visions (Isaiah 6), to Jacob in a dream (Genesis 28:220, and to Abraham and Moses personally (Genesis 18, Exodus 31:18).

Jesus is not only God’s Son, but He is God and the exact representation of God. He is the same God who spoke in the Old Testament. What Jesus speaks is the full revelation of God.

The Word of God contains nothing but truth, therefore, we must take what we read personally and allow His Holy Spirit to open our hearts so we will have a deeper understanding of what God is saying to us. The only possible way that we can experience the wonderful abundant life that our Lord offers us is to listen to what God is saying to us through His Word. Jeremiah reminds us in Jeremiah 33:3 that if we listen and pay close attention to what He is saying to us, He will certainly “tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

This verse opens up with the words, “Call upon Me and I will answer.” How can God respond to us unless we call upon Him and then listen? God is faithful to answer. The question is, “are we faithful to call and then listen?” Do we pay attention? Paul says to us in Hebrews 2:1: “We must pay careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 119:105.

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

PRAYER:

Help me, dear Lord, to set apart a time each day just to listen to You. Help me to understand that this time needs to be spent first with my communication to You through prayer; and reading of Your  Word, patiently, in an attitude of prayer, listening and looking for Your direction for me.