Monday, July 26: Are you listening?

Greek philosopher Epictetus said, “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” That seems to be an infrequent occurrence in the modern world where listening is a lost art. Living in a society that pushes the philosophy that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, we are surrounded by squeakers. We keep our ears busy with iPods blaring noise nearly every moment of every day. Television fills most of our evenings, and certainly, it is not the quality of the programming that lures us, but the mindless filling of time. Rare are the times when we actually sit in peace…and listen!


My goal in writing this devotional was to elaborate upon God’s appearance into my life each day. Yesterday, while discussing this with a friend, a thought occurred to me. This really has nothing to do with God’s daily appearance. He is omnipresent. Instead, it has more to do with heightening my awareness of His voice, His hand and His orchestration of every aspect of my life. How often do we think that God speaks? In William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar,” Mark Antony says, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” Our lives would be much simpler if instead of lending our ears to what the Lord says, we would keep our ears on His words!


He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Matthew 13:9


He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 2:7


That statement and sentiment are repeated over a dozen times in the New Testament alone. I don’t think I ever have seen a person who did not have ears, yet that is not the point. When we come to the Lord, He gives us spiritual eyes and spiritual ears. When Jesus spoke in parables, it was so that only those He intended to receive the message would understand:


And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that


‘Seeing they may not see,
And hearing they may not understand.’ Luke 8:10

We should not be confused by the Bible, as God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). For the person confused by God’s Word, the greater possibility is that they have not acquired the spiritual ears to hear or the spiritual eyes to see the wonders of His works! If you want to see God in your life on a daily basis, take any event that occurs and reflect upon it. He is there, in the midst of it all. You carry Him into your sin, in addition to those times when you carry Him into church! He is with you always. If you want to hear His voice, read the Bible out loud!


For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’
Matthew 13:15