"My son, give attention to My words; incline your ear to My sayings."
Proverbs 4:20 NKJV
Most people go through life thinking God never speaks to them. Actually, He is speaking all the time to each of us. He shows us the way, warns us about different things and gently encourages us. However, our minds are usually so full of insignificant things that we miss a lot of what He is saying.
We ask God about something and then we give Him the answer, or we hear a part of it, believe we have heard Him right and then, set off on a journey that He didn't send us on in the first place. Our minds are constantly full of clutter and we are easily distracted or begin to daydream about something or other. When I was at Uni, the lecturer would be waffling on about something and my brain would be far away because I had drifted off into my own little world. All I saw was his lips moving. Then when I had returned to earth, I would be trying to whisper to the person next to me about what I had missed.
We are all like it and it can be a part of us. Sometimes it is nice to drift off into our own private world. However, not at the cost of missing what God wants to tell us. At times, if we could disect our brain to examine what the content was, we would probably see about 75% of what we don't need and 25% of what we do. We can be in church listening to a sermon and yet flying on a plane to our holiday destination instead of listening properly. Have you ever drifted off and the teacher, preacher or lecturer asks you what you think about what he has just said? (I have). Surely, I'm not the only one. What about that book you are reading, you can read the words and not take in any of it because you are focused on something else. Some of us try to read, watch the TV and hold a conversation at the same time. It doesn't work; we need to discipline ourselves.
Steve Furtick comments: 'Ask yourself, what guidance was God trying to give you today that you didn't hear because it was buried by negative noise?' (Chase the Chatterbox - Steve Furtick)
I believe that God is challenging us all to begin to listen to Him properly. To do this, we need to rid our mind of all of the clutter and turn the TV off, don't answer your mobile and refuse all other distractions. It may mean shutting yourself away for an hour; going for a walk or driving to a scenic place where you can begin to focus on Him. This type of stuff pays dividends, it is discipline. Just look at the contenders in the Olympics recently, they needed to be totally focused and away from distractions. So do you.
Copyriight 2021 Grahame Howard
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