While we continue to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe we have a great opportunity to represent Jesus well as we respond to God’s calling with a hearty, “Here Am I”!  Over the next 18 days I will continue sharing the devotions from my “Here Am I” book to help each of us pray about our response to God as He calls us to Himself.  Through time in prayer, this devotional journal was written to help you see and respond to God’s calling as you see Him working in your “everyday” life.

Here is day fourteen with an important reminder that you, and those around you, have been called by God to a glorious inheritance.

Called To Hear

“Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Luke 8:8 (NIV)

Is it possible to listen to someone without hearing what they are really saying?  What does it take for you to hear what people are actually saying?  Does listening beyond the surface of a conversation come easy to you?  How good are you at listening to God?  Do you think He would say that you are one who “has ears to hear”?  Why?  Should hearing what God has said in His Word change the way you do life?  In what way?  Does it?  How does a practice of listening to God change the way that you hear what others are saying?

It has been said that the average person listens more for the purpose of responding rather than understanding.  It seems that even in the days of Jesus, the crowds would gather and listen to His words with little attempt to understand what He was saying, let alone put His words into practice.  As Christians, God calls us to use what He has given us in order to actually hear what He has to say.  Those who “have ears to hear” should make it a practice to not only hear what God has said, but to incorporate His words into how we live life.  As God calls each of us to hear what He says, His desire is that we would do what He says.

As you pray about how you listen to God, ask Him to open your ears to the truth of His Word.  Pray that you would be one who desires to hear from God as you spend time with Him in prayer and His Word.  Pray that you would grow in the way that you listen so that you would also hear beyond the surface in what others say to you.  Pray that you would learn to seek understanding of what you hear before responding.  Pray that your life would reflect an active hearing of God’s Word.

In prayer,

Tom