New Reminders: Listening

We have all heard the phrases: “Listen to your mother, listen to your heart or gut, listen to God, or listen to your conscience".  This might seem strange to someone whose mother is not present and who’s heart, God and conscience are all silent.  Yet we know what our mothers told us when we were growing up, we have all been viscerally “touched” when we see a sad or happy situation happening, and we get a “gut feeling” as to whether something is the right or wrong to think or do.  We even have a physical reaction when we realized that something is embarrassing.  We feel the heat rising and know that our face is getting red.  Likewise, we can all “hear”, at our core, when God is “speaking” to us through His word as we read the Bible or when we are actually listening to the sound of our pastor’s verbal expressions about what God wants us to hear.

Whether we can actually hear with our ears, or we are able to perceive what God wants us to know, listening requires our attention. Even listening to music, bird’s songs, or police or storm sirens, only affect us when we are able to pay close attention to the sounds and interpret what they mean.  When we don’t know how to hear what God wants us to know, we need to figure out why we need to hear from Him.  We have to want to hear God, in order to be able to pay attention to what He has to say.  We have to be intentional in our listening!  We also need to know what we are listening for. What is our motivation?  Why converse with God? 

John 14:26 tells us that God has sent the Holy Spirit to be our guide: "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you".  While we are not always at ease with the spiritual world, we can often feel the spirit speaking to us, if we are open to it.  Our thoughts reflect what our hearts desire.  If we are troubled and have asked the Holy Spirit to guide us, we are likely to get a strong feeling about which way we should go.  That is why prayer, no matter how informal, is so important.  When we pray for guidance, and listen for an answer, doors of opportunity or ideas may seem to, “magically” open for us.  We need to be patient, because prayers are not always answered on our time schedule.  Sometimes we have to wait for the right opportunity to present itself.  In the meantime, we can study God’s word and maybe even put our own thoughts on paper, so that we can see, what we cannot literally hear.  If we are intentional about listening, writing down your own thoughts, is a way to organize and visualize the various options.  Journaling or note taking seem to work well for some people.  

Psalm 85:8 lets us know that if we do not listen to God, we are in danger of falling prey to foolish thinking and to acting unwisely.  It says: "I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants––but let them not turn to folly".  Matthew 7:24 reassures us that if we do listen and do what He says, we will be wise and will act wisely. "Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine, and puts them into practice, is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock".