Language is an important component in relating to one another. Listening is the art of paying attention in order to understand. As we have conversation with another person, we have the opportunity to truly "hear" what a person is saying.
Recently, someone I was speaking with posed this question:
How do you develop an IDEA around something that people are not even thinking about?
This is where listening is vital! When we truly listen, we make important connections with each other, understanding grows, and the possibility for incredible outcomes begin to exist!
Listening is more than just receiving audible sound, it's a means of understanding.
Listening is paying attention to someone or something in order to hear what is being said.
Listening is to hear what someone has said and understand that it is serious, important, or true.
Our world and the space we live in is noisy
He says "Be still, and know that I am God." PSALM 46:10
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. JEREMIAH 3:3
The concept of "still" is to slacken
...to become slower or less active, to slow down.
I don't know about you, but I live at a pretty full pace! I learned that I needed to be intentional about slowing down and finding quiet space where I could begin to listen, hear, and understand what the Lord is saying to me.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. COLOSSIANS 3:2
The Lord is eager to share the incredible things he has planned for us, if we will only take the time to listen. I think of Paul's words:
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us... EPHESIANS 3:20
"Immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine..."
Slow down and digest those words!
There are moments when we get glimpses of the "more"
...sometimes only fleeting glimpses that could be missed
if we aren't still enough to catch a glimpse of them.
The Lord is asking us to perceive more that we can merely take in through our mortal senses. But how do we do this?
Where is that for you?
My space is in the early hours of the morning, before anyone else is moving in my house. At first, it was unfamiliar and I had no pattern, but day by day I began to know how to relate to the Lord, to know His voice, and to listen.
A week ago in Can You Relate?, I wrote: "God's Word is not merely for information; it is His means of relating to us, establishing a means of conversation. In the Bible, we have the Word of God, where His part of the conversation is provided, providing a means of grace where a relationship of understanding an trust can grow." The Word of God speaks, if only we will listen.
At the end of Moses' life, the Lord instructed him to remind the Israelites about the things of the Lord. At one point Moses says. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. DEUTERONOMY 29:29
In the next chapter, Moses says, " But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it." DEUTERONOMY 30:14
And Paul writes:
However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”
the things God has prepared for those who love him
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 1 CORINTHIANS 2:9-10
Slow down, find quiet space, take time to meditate on the Word of God, listen and let His Holy Spirit reveal what He wants you to know.
Peace be with you!
No comments:
Post a Comment