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"I will hear what God the LORD will speak,
For He will speak peace
To His people and to His saints;
But let them not turn back to folly."
(Psalm 85:8)
Read that first line again slowly: "I will hear what God the LORD will speak." God will speak. He will instruct you in the way you should go. He speaks words of life and peace. He will impress upon you in your inner man or inner woman words of comfort in your time of distress. He will speak words of correction when we sin against Him. Part of having a relationship with God and walking with Him is hearing Him when He speaks. Most of us do way more talking to God than we do listening to God. I know I am guilty of this. I find myself in my quiet times doing much more talking instead of simply being still in His presence and hearing Him speak to me through the Word of God.
Pastor Charles Stanley in his message on listening to and walking with God says that there are two types of listeners: the purposeful listener and the passive listener. To listen with purpose, one must be focused and not distracted by other things. This applies in our relationship with God and others. To listen with purpose is worth all the effort we put into it. We simply cannot have a growing and healthy relationship with the Lord if we do not listen to what He has to say to us. It is true in our relationships with others as well. If you do not listen well, you will not enjoy a good relationship with that person. Yes, listening is that important!
Proverbs 18:2 states, "A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart." Think about it this way, God wants to tell you something! In fact, He wants to tell you many things and impact your life in wonderful ways. But we have to slow down long enough to hear Him. The passive listener is not as intentional and will miss what the other person is saying simply because they are not listening with purpose but passively and without real focus.
Purposeful listening is to intently absorb and apply the truth you have heard. Passive listening is where you sit and listen then walk away and forget. Stanley says passive listeners do not listen with the intent to apply to the heart in order to become the person God wants them to become. They simply hear information. He asked, do you go to church purposely to listen to God's Word, or passively? Churches are full of passive listeners with no intention to do anything. Why do people go to church and live no differently? They are passive listeners. They do not truly listen to what is being said, and therefore, the teaching of the truth has no impact in their lives. It makes no difference in how they walk with God and treat other people.
How do you change your listening habits and become a purposeful listener? It will take some time, effort, and discipline. Habits, whether positive or negative ones, take time to form. Tomorrow, I will share some practical ways you and I can be better listeners, how we can listen with purpose, and not simply hear with passivity.
I pray that the Lord blesses you today and that you will hear God when He speaks peace to you, as Psalm 85:8 tells us.
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