Are You Ears Open?

Sunday morning retuning: I am thankful that we have a church led by people who are not afraid to speak truth about difficult things.  Pornography is an epidemic and I will not soon forget its toxic repercussions thanks to Pastor Scott's yellow hazard suit and the surgical mask I carried home with me.  Was God speaking to you Sunday? 

And by this weeks question I do not mean, "do you hear sounds?"  I am asking if you hear what is being said to you and responding to it.  Are you applying what you hear and allowing it to change you?  Last weeks I asked if you have your eyes open, and this week I am asking about your ears.  Here is why I am asking this.

I recently heard the newly elected president of the U.S. C&MA, John Stumbo, make this statement.  "Our God is aspeaking God.  We need to be a listening people." If you would like to hear more from him, I encourage you to listen to his first devotional delivered to the National Office staff.

Now before you say, "Duh!  Of course we need to be a listening people" please ask yourself these two questions.  First, when was the last time you really stopped to listen to God?  Second, what did he say?  If you find yourself struggling to answer the second question, it may be because there is some issue with your answer to the first.

You see, I believe we have a speaking God.  Even though I am not a good listener and I fail to obey more often than I care to admit, I know some things that God is saying to me in this season, and I am straining to do what He is telling me.  I appreciate your prayers as I make those efforts.  I will admit that I am excited about those things, but that there is mingled together with that excitement uncertainty and fear which probably stems from my lack of confidence that I have actually heard those things from God.

You know that feeling I am talking about, don't you?  It is probably like the feeling my four year old had just before he took this bite out of the butter the other day.  His self-talk probably went something like,  "Boy I really like butter.  And after all I do not remember Dad telling me not to take a bite out of the stick of butter.  Besides he gives me butter most days anyway.  He probably won't mind.  I hope he doesn't.  I will just take a small bite."  [Do you see the bite marks?]

Though this is more of a negative example, more of what you may have heard not to do, the things I hear from God, and I imagine you do or will too or generally more of things to do.  Will you spend a few minutes listening today, either about what God said Sunday or something else?  Then respond and demonstrate you really were listening to our speaking God.

Jesus, give us ears to hear what You are saying to me.  In the every day and every way I want to know You will.  I want to hear Your voice.  In Jesus name. Amen.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy