Dear Heavenly Father,
Please help us to listen more intently to Your Word. The world is a very unpredictable and chaotic place. To navigate through it, we need Your divine direction through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and You tell us that we also need to be careful about HOW we hear. Jesus Christ said in Luke 8:18(NLT), “So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.” We need to pick up on important details that many of us are missing. Like the Pharisees in the Bible, sometimes we have subjective hearing and only hear the things that support our own beliefs and opinions. We must change this because we can’t afford to miss out on anything You want to share with us; therefore, we should desire to be an attentive listener.
Communication maintains our fellowship with You, and it is a two-way street. We speak to You through prayer and You speak to us through Your Word, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and through our everyday circumstances. You do not tell us anything that doesn’t line up with Your Holy Word. Some people declare that You have told them to do things that breed negativity and chaos, but You’ve told us in 1Corinithians 14:33 that You are not the author of confusion and chaos, but of peace. 1John 1:5 affirms that You are light, and in You there is NO darkness at all.
In Philippians 4:8 You tell us to fix our thoughts on things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable; You tell us to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise, because this is the mind of Christ. It’s how we keep our head and heart well-groomed to recognize Your voice and receive Your impetus through the Holy Spirit.
To be an attentive listener, we also have to be watchful about what we allow into our heads and hearts. We must be careful what we watch on tv and social media, and we must be careful about the music we listen to, because these things can dull our spiritual hearing. In 2Peter 3:18, You tell us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ our Lord, because there is much You want to tell us, and we need to be able to handle it. We say that we are ready to listen, but many of us are like the believers in Hebrews, chapter 5. They couldn’t hear strong Word because verse 11 tells us they were spiritually dull and didn’t seem to listen.
Hebrews 5:14(NLT) says, “Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.” Heavenly Father, please help us to be the kind of believers that are eager to hear from You, and who will pay careful attention to details. Help us to spiritually grow so that we are ready to receive meat, not just milk. Then we can instruct others in Your Word, and they can begin to live righteously through Christ, just as we do. Please help us to be all that You desire us to be.
Thank You for showing us Your love, strength, and power as we seek to grow in You and trust You with our whole hearts. Thank You for our Blessed Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, and thank You for the Holy Spirit. Let Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“An Attentive Listener”, written by K. Lizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2019. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.