James 1:19-21- Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
We can hear what someone is saying but not truly listen to what they are saying. What I mean by that is…. have you ever been listening to someone talk about by the time they are done you have no clue what they said? It happens to all of us, we all zone out from time to time and don’t really know what was said. That is hearing but not listening.
We need to be more intentional in our listening so we can better understand what others are saying and also what to do when given instruction.
James 1:22 - But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
Like I said earlier, if you heard someone but don’t know what was said you were not really listening. If we don’t know what was said how do, we know what to respond?
Sometimes we are not really listening because we are thinking about our response. In this scripture I just read it clearly tells us to listen and then obey. If we are concentrating on other things or our response, then we will not be able to follow through with the directions given because we weren’t fully paying attention.
Hey, I can be easily distracted sometimes, and I am aware of it. So, when I go to God, and I am waiting to hear from Him I have to make sure that distractions will be minimal. There are times that the distractions don’t bother me, and I can listen to Him no matter what is happening. But no matter what is going on my main goal is to not only hear God but to really listen for Him and then do what He has asked me to do.
When I am talking with someone I make it a point to listen first. The best way to practice listening is on the phone...we don't see the person we are talking to, unless its a facetime, and so we listen with intent an to properly respond without interrupting them. They don't know we are listening because they can't see us so we are intentional with our listening, so when we do respond they know that we are.
We are all God children and like a child we need to learn to listen to our Father. I want my kids to listen to me. I am guiding them through these years before they are adults and on their own and I want to make sure they will know how to move through life in a way that is good, and I want them to know that God is with them.
God is always teaching and guiding us and if we are not tuned to listen to Him, we can miss a big part of the conversation and then we are not able to follow through with what the directions were.
Don’t just hear, listen, and then do.
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