Listen properly to God's Word

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"My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh."     Proverbs 4:20-22.  NKJV

How much do we listen to people, I mean properly with both ears? It is so easy to listen with one ear and be listening to something else with the other. It's great to listen to music on your iPhone as you walk along the road. But if you meet someone, do you really listen to what they say, or is a song of praise buzzing through your head at the same time?

Here Solomon tells his son, to give attention to his words. We should also be giving attention to what God is saying to us. Remember Eve? God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The serpent tricked Eve saying that it would be ok to eat from it, she replied that they were not even allowed to touch the tree, which was not true. They had not listened properly and disaster followed.

It is incredibly important to listen properly to what God is telling us. It is also very important to listen properly when someone is speaking to you. You need to cultivate good attending skills. This means to not only listen properly but feed back a little of the conversation to let the other person know that you're hooked up to what they're saying. Counsellors, call this the Internal Frame of Reference. This means sitting in the shoes of the person who is speaking with you, giving them total eye contact and your attention. This way, dignity is given. This is especially important when God is speaking to you. What He has to say is of the utmost priority and we need to concentrate so that we don't get things wrong and go off at a tangent, doing the wrong thing.

God has so much to offer us. He has so much He wants to tell us but we need to spend sufficient time with Him in order to hear what He is saying. How much time do you spend each day reading your bible? Be honest with yourself. Is it enough time? Are other things distracting you from doing this? If you don't read His Word, how will you know the way forward.

How much time do you spend in prayer each day? Is it enough time, if not, ask yourself, why? If you don't speak to Him, how will He know what's on your heart. He probably knows already, yes. But He wants you to tell Him. 
How much time do you listen to God each day? Again, be honest with yourself. Is it enough time? If you don't listen, you won't know what He wants of you.

Therefore to recap, are you spending time in God's Word? Are you praying and are you listening to Him? Are there changes you need to make?

Only you know the answer to these questions.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard 

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com