We live in a world where everyone and everything is fighting for our attention. That is part of living in a busy and noisy world. We constantly hear the footsteps of people in a hurry and cars rushing off to their next appointment. If we were to stop long enough, we would hear the quickening heartbeats of society chasing after what the world offers- the latest and greatest. And the beat goes on. Even Christians can get seduced by the Noise to where they cannot hear God’s voice.
The Shema Yisrael (Deuteronomy 6:4) serves as the centerpiece of the Jews who recite it in their morning and evening prayers. It affirms the one-God doctrine of Judaism and is used in everyday prayers, and begins “Hear, O Israel.” That is, when a person prays to God, there is the posture of listening to God. Jesus reiterates this very principle using the analogy of sheep to their shepherd: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27). Israel’s problem was that though they had ears, they were not listening (Matthew 13:14-15). They were like the seeds that fell on the hard soil that were immediately taken away by the birds (Matthew 13:3-9; Mark 4:3-9; Luke 8:5-8). So Jesus invites his audience, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” So work at eliminating the obstacles that keep you from hearing God speak.
Preachers who are supposed to prepare sermons for people to hear also can fall into the trap of not listening to God. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a famous pastor, said in his book "Preaching and Preachers" that a church’s decline is directly related to what he calls, “low preaching.” This happens when the preacher fails to listen to the voice of God, then the listener will also be disappointed, and naturally there will be no spiritual growth. The main cause of spiritual poverty in many churches worldwide is the unwillingness of people to listen to and obey the Word of God. So, pray for those who prepare sermons and Bible studies that they would hear from God. Pray for ourselves that we willingly want to hear from God. We need to adopt the spirit of Samuel who asked, “God, please speak, your servant is listening.”
Physically, God has given us two ears. Spiritually, having two ears enables us to listen to both God and the world. John Stott, in his book The Contemporary Christian put it this way; "As the witnesses of Christ, we stand between the word of God and the world, so we have the responsibility to listen to God and the world. We listen to the word of God so that we can discover more of the riches of Christ; we listen to the world so that we can know which riches of Christ the world needs most. Then we can know how we should bring these riches to the world.” So listen to what God has to say and then listen to the world as to how we can share the gospel in a way that others would understand Him and respond.
The prophet Elijah struggled in his listening skills. After defeating the Ahab and the prophets of Baal and Asherah, he made the mistake of listening to Jezebel’s threats, fled, and wanted to die (1 Kings 18-19). God took his time to restore Elijah’s health (rest and food) then tuned Elijah’s ears to hear God’s voice. At the mouth of the cave he was staying, a great and powerful wind came but God was not in it. Then came an earthquake and a fire but God was not in either. Finally, God spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper. Elijah heard God speak. In a world that is filled with attention-getting wind, earthquakes, and fire, we must learn to be still and listen for God’s voice. For only when God speaks do we find peace and direction for our souls and how we can serve our brothers and sisters in a more meaningful way.
-Pastor Kelvin Chiu
