I tell my kids this all the time, be a good listener; when the fact is, I myself, am a horrible listener. I thrive on distractions, as though I intentionally seek them. In fact, when sitting down to write this message, I picked up my phone to turn on my worship music, and 20 minutes of social media scrolling later, I set the phone down, forgetting why I had picked it up to begin with. My poor children often try to tell me something while I’m in the middle of working, blogging, crocheting or counting stitches, making my grocery list, or budget planning. There is always something. There is always a reason for me to say, Not right now.And how often are we giving the same distracted answer to God? How often are we ignoring Him because it might be inconvenient at the time? Or maybe just something we really don’t want to do?
I am really talking to myself, soooo much, right now.
When we tell our children to be good listeners, what are we really requiring of them? We don’t want them to just hear the words, we want them to heed our instruction. It is a call to action. God will make Himself very clear in our hearts. He is not always going to be a booming voice from the Heavens, but if you ask for direction, open your Bible, and open your heart to hear His whispers, He will make clear to you what you should do. In some cases, the answer is simply to wait, but often, in day to day life, when opportunities arise to serve others, we can feel the tugging on our hearts, but we are busy, we have far too much on our plates, it’s inconvenient, or we just plain and simply do not want to do it.
Do more than just pray. Do more than just listen. If anyone hears my voice AND opens the door, I will come in. To be a good listener is to be willing to act when called upon.
Open the door.