Hi how are you all today? I am well and currently sitting in rehearsal for Christmas production. I am in the choir and it has been good building relationships.
This blog I want to talk about listening. We know listening is a good thing to do. So why is it so hard? I think it is because we are selfish. We want our words to be heard over others as we believe ours are most important. So let’s look at the dictionary definition of listening.
In the Oxford dictionary, one of the meanings is to make an effort to hear something and to be alert and ready. This is far from what most of us do. However it is important that we master the art of listening and not only for others but listening to God.
Let’s look at the story of Abraham in the Message Bible. This story is found in Genesis 22. It is the story of when God tested Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.
In verse 1, God called Abraham and his response was – yes? I’m listening. My question is when God calls us is that our response or do we have trouble hearing Gods voice? As children of God, we need to get good at hearing the voice of God.
How do we do that? Let’s practice! Get yourself in a quiet place and say to God – I love you. Then listen for His response. That is the voice of God if you receive a positive response.
Let’s continue with our story. God then tells him what to do. So the next morning Abraham goes to do what God said. In the third day of the journey Abraham tells his servants to stay and takes Isaac and the things needed for a sacrifice with them. I wonder if God told Abraham to continue the journey only with his son or not. It parallels the story of Jesus going to the cross with only His Father God with Him.
Then Isaac started to worry – who or what was going to be the sacrifice. He had probably heard the stories of his father’s previous country. Abraham told him God would provide for Himself the sacrifice – ultimately Jesus.
They arrived at the place and then Abraham got everything ready and then bound up his son to be the sacrifice. How hard would that have been for both of them? Abraham was just ready to kill him when God spoke and said don’t.
As I was reading this passage last week it occurred to me – Abraham must have been listening to God. God gave him the command and told him what to do. But all through that three day journey and then up the mountain, Abraham must have had his ears attuned to the voice of God. You see when we hear a noise and it startles us, we keep listening for that noise only. Everything else seems to be drowned out and we can’t hear it.
I wonder if we are supposed to live our lives like that- so attuned to listening to the voice of God that all other noise is drowned out. This doesn’t mean we don’t communicate with anyone. But when we go through a crisis, this should be our hearing posture – attuned to Gods voice.
Abraham heard the voice of God straight away and didn’t doubt what he heard because he was attuned to it. We need to do the same – talk to God but attune our ears to His voice.
This week practice attuning your ears to God’s voice and hear what He is saying to you. You may be surprised!
Have a great week and keep living the life God intended for you.
Bless you
Karen
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