Thought for Wednesday, January 16th

January 16, 2013

He Has Spoken

Have you ever been guilty of hearing without listening?

These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended….

…These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father….

…These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

John 16:1,25 & 33

“Speech is civilization itself.  The word… …preserves contact – it is silence which isolates.”

-       Thomas Mann

Some say confession is good for the soul: so here goes my confession: when I was in my preteen, teen and even post teen years, I developed a knack for listening without really hearing.  I’m sure that will not come as a major revelation to my parents, but nonetheless I learned how to act like I didn’t hear by pretending to be absorbed in some other endeavor.  Typically I did this when I did not like the content of the communication; for in truth if a treat or desirable opportunity were being presented, I never missed a beat.  I hope I have outgrown this but we won’t bother asking any of the people who really know me.

Sadly, as Christians we seem to have a great propensity towards this process of selective hearing when it comes to the things that God says to us.

Often we hear: but if we don’t like the content of the message we tune it out or let it fall into the vat of those things we choose to forget (our own little sea of forgetfulness).

Yet, at other times we don’t dislike the message so much as we are afraid of it’s implications, it’s demands and what it might require of us.

God desires a continual relationship with His children so He is always communicating: because He works a lot harder at making our relationship work than many times we do and one of the keys to this is His communicating to us.

Sometimes, spiritually speaking; we need to go back to those skills we were suppose to learn in kindergarten and elementary school and we need to learn how to develop better listening skills and then we need to act, react and respond in a way that shows not only did we hear Him, but also in a way that declares our willingness to obey.

Today’s Prayer

Father, help me to go beyond hearing to the point of listening and then give me the strength and courage to be always be responsive in the most positive of ways.