Friday Fight 186: Are We Listening?

Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF186.

How often have we been talking to someone and convincingly felt they were not listening? I'm sure we have all found ourselves in situations like this. We know what it's like to be ignored, misunderstood, or desire another's attention. Yet, we often fail to stop talking and actively listen. How can understanding our listening deficits help our spiritual lives?

Are We Listening?

Remember when our children were little and desperately tried to share something with us? Rather than listening, we convinced ourselves that we could successfully multitask. We heard the words spoken but were not actively listening. We often expect children to listen to our rules, explanations, and life lessons, but are we setting a good example by not reciprocating this?

Let's apply some of this to our relationship with God. Our Father in Heaven only wants our hearts. We can spend hours talking to God, sharing our fears, worries, and thankfulness, but is our balance of speaking and listening one-sided? How many of us have no problem talking to God, but we are struggling in listening? I know from education that listening requires attention and constant effort to understand, which builds trust and displays a respectful interest in what is being conveyed. Part of talking to God is quieting ourselves before the Lord and listening to what is being revealed to us. This active listening is vital to understanding God's messages, which we can interpret and respond to through prayer.

Many of us probably avoid listening to God for many reasons, but let's look at some impactful ones, most importantly, sin. John 10:27 says, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." Think back to when we were teenagers; we thought we knew everything. It did not matter what our parents said; they did not understand, and any conversation would entail us listening to corrections, so we refused. Unfortunately, some of us still parallel those examples, and we fear God's correction. We must be mindful because not wanting to accept corrections is prideful and means refusing growth. Change requires change, but where do we start? We can begin by setting time aside to hear from the Lord and giving our full attention to Him through prayer. Just as a sheep must entirely rely on the shepherd for protection and direction, we rely on Christ in the same way. But we can only truly follow if we recognize His voice and trust His leadership.

Recognizing God's voice develops over time and requires us to push aside our doubt and fear. How much have we missed that God has spoken to us because of distraction, hurt, doubt, or simply not conversing with God? Let's begin this weekend as we head into the holiday season, giving God our time and attention. Pray and listen with anticipation of what He wants to share; it could be something we have been missing all along.

Pastor Shannon

New Life Church