Bulletin
Ready to Listen?
Ready to Listen?
My wife often speaks to me from the next room. My responses vary - sometimes I mumble back, quietly enough that she can't quite hear me. Other times, I'll call out, "I hope you're not talking to me because I can't hear you!" We both laugh about these communication challenges.
For truly important matters, she'll enter the room so we can talk face-to-face. This dynamic in my marriage makes me reflect on my relationship with God - after all, I'm in a covenant relationship with both.
When God tries to communicate with me, am I truly positioned to listen? Consider:
Will God speak to us while we’re:
Absorbed in television? (If we want meaningful conversations with our children, we turn off the TV. Shouldn't we offer God the same courtesy?)
Cramming for exams?
Mid-conversation with others?
Scrolling through social media, watching YouTube, or playing video games?
Engaged in sports - whether playing or watching? (And I enjoy quite a few!)
Eating, drinking, or otherwise occupied?
Perhaps God can't speak to us because we're perpetually "in the other room." When was the last time you really spent some time reading the word of God? Followed up with meditation about what you read? Followed up by a meaningful prayer.
God may have something profound to share, but our minds and lives leave no space for Him. This reminds me of Jesus's birth: "And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:1). No room for the Son of God? How can we receive God's only son yet make no space for Him? We're too preoccupied to truly listen.
One day, we'll seek room in His eternal inn. What will His response be? Will He listen to us?
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” (Mat. 7:21-23).
Why do we practice lawlessness? Because we never truly knew Jesus - we couldn't give Him our attention. Please make yourself ready to listen earnestly to Him. He matters more than life itself. Will he find space in your “inn”, your “life”, your “heart"? (Rev. 3:20-22). Dan Peters
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