Mark 8:17-18 (Amplified Bible)
17) And being aware [of it], Jesus said to them, Why are you reasoning and saying it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet discern or understand? Are your hearts in [a settled state of] hardness?
18) Having eyes, do you not see [with them], and having ears, do you not hear and perceive and understand the sense of what is said? And do you not remember?
As I sat down many times to talk with people, I could tell they were resistant to hear the message that was being given. The topic of conversations covered a wide range of things that ultimately all pointed back to the way they were hearing, or the way they were or were not listening. In the middle of one conversation I got a picture of a Charlie Brown cartoon as his teacher spoke hearing nothing, but "wah, wah, wah,wah, wah"... They were hearing the words I was speaking, but they were not listening. They had checked out, because they were in defense of their position, the words hung with no place to rest. I recognized the posture I had been there myself. Just as when we speak to one another and do not listen to the content of the individual or the definition of the words spoken, we do the same with God.
How often has God spoken to us and we have heard the words, recognized the sounds and the syllables, but we did not listen? We probably do not know how often, because we probably do not know how much we do not know about the Lord, His heart or His intent. For so many of us we claim to love God and honestly in our own selfish way we do, but when it comes to having an understanding for God and doing things His way we apply the humanistic value that we do when we deal with one another, we hear with self involvement, "how is it effecting me," instead of hearing for value and understanding. When we do not want to really hear or take the time to sacrifice of ourselves to gain an understanding, instead we find some of us , that will hear and it is not the message that we want, so they tune God out, for others we do not know God or His voice so we apply the "God knows my heart standard" to everything and we think that is the pass of acceptance, and for others still, they apply the "I'll let it do, what it do," methodology that says I am going to do what I want, ask for forgiveness and if I have to pay a penalty I will, not now but later. Can we imagine if God heard us and treated us the way we hear, listened to and treat Him? Even worse still, image if God listened to us with the compassion, unwillingness to understand and unforgiveness that we bestow upon one another, what a hot mess that would be.
It would be so much easier if we listened as we heard, and as if we knew God in a way that would teach us to obey His words and His voice with a willing heart. It is only when we truly hear God and listen to His instruction, direction, correction, love, care and rebuke that we will be able to listen to anyone other than our own selves. The Bible instructs us, "that He that has an ear let Him hear what the spirit is saying to the church." You can not hear the spirit if you are not listening and if you, do not know or understand Him, or if you can not get yourself out of the way! Stop seeking after self and listening to yourself by yourself and listen to Wisest Counsel you could ever receive!
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