What God Has to Say About Listening

     "There is a difference between truly listening, and waiting for your turn to talk."

     So often, I find myself in this situation. I'm hearing the words that are coming out of somebody's mouth, yet I couldn't tell you what they said five minutes later, because I was too focused on what I wanted to say.  Listen and silent contain the same words - maybe that is telling us something! Let's look at what the Bible has to say about listening.

God is listening to us

But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. Psalm 66:19-20 

God hears what we have to say. Do we deserve that? Nope. We definitely don't. Yet His ears are inclined to us, no matter what time of day or night. Nobody has ears that hear better than the Lord. I think it's so cool that we don't even have to speak for God to hear us. He knows the cries of our hearts! 

We should be listening to God

...Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. Luke 11:28

God speaks to us by using His word. That's His way of communicating to us. We need to have ears tender enough to hear even the softest whisper of the Holy Spirit. We can hear what God has to say to us through reading the Bible in devotions, by listening to godly men and women around us, and by going to Church to hear the Bible preached through men of God. We know based of James 1:22 that we aren't supposed to just hear the word, but we should be doers of it also. Listen to what God has to say, and act upon what's right.

We should be listening to others

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.    James 1:19

We need to be quick to listen to others, and slow to have a reply. This applies ESPECIALLY in situations where you want to get angry. It's so easy to spout off a sarcastic remark when we're annoyed! I know I'm definitely guilty. But God wants us to be people that are quick to hear and slow to speak. If God can take the time to listen to us, we should be taking the time to listen to others!

The Bible talks a LOT in the book of Proverbs about the importance of holding our tongues. We would be doing ourselves a lot of good if we just learned to listen a little more and talk a little less. I know this is something that I am definitely working on! One of the most sincere ways to show respect is to listen to what another person has to say. Let us be people who are quick to listen and slow to speak. 

Stay excellent!