Listen

Do you ever wonder if God is listening to you?  We all go through stages where we feel as though He is nowhere near us.  We wonder if He hears us as we pray our long list of requests to Him.  We easily get frustrated when our prayers go unanswered and time slips by.  Is He really there for us?

But let me ask you, are you listening to Him? 

John 10: 27-28 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” - as spoken by Jesus.

Many of us forget that our relationship with God is a two-way relationship.  Yes, He will answer our prayers, but He wants to know us, and He also expects us to follow His plan for our lives.  We can’t do that unless we spend quiet time listening for His voice.

Think about your relationship with your children.  When they listen to you, behave accordingly and do what you ask, you are ready to give them anything.  You pleasure in bringing them joy and in blessing them with positive reinforcements. It’s not the same when your children defy you and ignore what you have to say, though.  Then, the last thing you want to see from them is a list of “I wants”.  

God desires to bless us when we heed His word, when we listen to what He has to say.

As I’ve mentioned often before, our relationship with God closely parallels our relationship with our spouse.  How quick are we to bark off a list of requests to our spouse and get angry and frustrated when they don’t take action?

But how carefully do we really listen, in return, to our spouse?

Everyone wants to be heard.  In our own selfish desire to get our spouse to listen, we often forget that marriage is two-sided.  They also need to be heard.   

When couples come to us with problems there are always two sides of the story, and each person seems to get lost in their pursuit of self-justification of their particular side.  Communication has gone to the wayside, and they haven’t listened to each other in quite a while.

We also do that with God.  We get caught up in justifying our behavior when we haven’t been listening to Him.  Our prayers aren’t answered because we haven’t communicated with Him. 

It all boils down to the biggest struggle we face as humans – our SELF.  We want what we want when we want in spite of someone else’s needs or agenda – even Gods.

Once we realize that this life isn’t about our selfish desires, then we are free to completely serve God and listen to Him wholeheartedly.   We are then ready to fulfill His plan for our lives which will always include putting other’s needs ahead of our own, especially our spouse.  That means we must take the time to listen and find out what those needs are.