“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek Me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord..”
Jeremiah 29:12-14a
Jeremiah 29:12-14a
It’s one of the hardest disciplines people can have. A difference between hearing and listening, and that’s why Jesus always told us the importance of “those who have ears, let them hear”.
In the very beginning of this Race one of the weaknesses God revealed to me was my lack of listening, and a desire to grow in. Being able to listen to God more in my daily walk with Him, and not just spouting off words of things I “want Him to hear” but that I should be letting Him speak to me about my heart and His grace. Being able to listen to those people around me and even my teammates. Sometimes when someone is telling us their life story or something really important it becomes easy to go ahead and start thinking of things I’m going to say instead of letting them say it all and focusing completely on them. The worst part is when I or anyone else does that then when we try to give a word of Truth or Life back to them, it may not be the right thing they need; it could be good but not the best because we didn’t listen.
I even challenged my teammates to hold me accountable in ways that I could grow to be more of a man of God; especially in this area. In the first five months or so I would say that I’ve really grown much in this, but the last couple of months have been like taking steps back. I really feel like my time with the Lord has been well, especially when I’m called upon to speak at a very last second and come into complete utter dependence on Him for what is going to be said (a great place to be in), but still throughout the days I’m not listening to what He still has for me to hear. But the last couple of months I’ve not listened well to my teammates, something God brought to attention to me a few days ago.
I truly believe that listening is an act of love; that if you really care and love someone you’ll desire to hear their heart; pains, burdens, joys, thoughts they’re are thinking, because you care for them and want the best for them. You can’t love someone if you’re not willing to set aside your own preconceived ideas and thoughts while they’re trusting you in vulnerability to what they are saying.
One of my biggest concerns is when Jeremiah 29:11 is just thrown around like a favorite verse for people and it’s left alone. I believe that you have to continue to v. 14a. How great is it to know that God does have plans for our lives that are wonderful, but that isn’t a promise to think of the future and fail to walking with Him now. The greatest promise is the following verses where God tells us that if we seek Him with our whole heart, come, and pray that He will be found and will hear us. That’s the greatest message! If I’m not listening and desiring God in the depths of my soul, then I’m treating Him like a treasure box. But God says that if I desire His presence over his presents, if I seek Him and listen to Him, then He will be found, He’ll hear me and will reveal His plans and future day by day. Christ tells us to seek His righteousness first, then things will be added. So I should seek and take time to listen to God if I am going to be in His will and love those around me.
This past Sunday while my squad was in Kampala, Uganda for a few days of rest I went to a large church where they had an english service. It was the first time I was able to go to an english service in a very long time to just worship and listen to God’s Word without any responsibility in the service. Of all the Sundays I would visit, they had a guest speaker from Pittsburgh come and he was very short in message, but what I needed to hear.
He talked about hearing God and about three things in our lives that keep us from hearing His voice in our lives. That we have a “hearing problem” as humans; God speaks to us clearly but we don’t always hear it the way it’s written because of sin and other things in our lives.
Pride – it’s hard for us to humble ourselves to hear. That’s why Jesus tells us to be like children, pride hasn’t gotten to them yet. We need to come recognize ourselves before God. And pride is something that I know we all will struggle with; it’s the basic cause of everything that keeps us from God and the origin of the Fall. But my pride has kept me from hearing from God when I’m too busy listening to myself or focused on myself that I’m not allowing God to speak. It’s easy to jump into self-defense mode instead of letting Truth soak in.
Impatience – It’s so hard to hear God because we’re too busy talking His ear off. We speak to Him while the problem is He has so many things to tell me. One thing I was told while in Africa was that I can’t come here thinking, “I’m the Savior” and our impatience to try to fix everything can make it so painful. Impatience is making my listening awful because I want to be quick to do “good things” but fail to know what the best thing is and what He’s telling me.
Anger – Things happen that make us angry and we don’t understand. We question and in anger tell God to fix it now and we stop listening. He wants me at times to listen to the pain because then you’ll hear His words of love and healing and then we get angry again. A lot of times I can get upset at things that really aren’t worth it, and then I turn a deaf ear to God which is never a good thing. Anger can make my listening to loved one be hurt the most.
As we hear and listen to God, the world can see the kingdom of God through us and see God in us to change lives. As people of God we should go out into the world and influence so they can hear what God is saying, but until these earplugs of impatience, anger, and pride leave then I will always be having those headphones of self on not listening to the greatest message He has for me. And if you’re living in a community of a family, friends, or even talking to a person whose just needing an act of love by a Christ follower, the greatest love you can show is to listen to them so they know they are valued, and that what they are saying is a reflection of their heart, and what you hear and are willing to take in is a reflection of your heart in caring
Update: So tomorrow we leave early in the morning to head back to Nairobi, Kenya for an overnight stay before leaving in the afternoon on our connection flight to Ireland and leaving Africa. The last three months have been many thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Our last three weeks in the Lira Province we just incredible though our team was feeling very tired. Last Wednesday I spoke at a youth conference with a few thousand people where God really showed up, but after that I was drained. With all the visits, prayers, encouragements, spiritual warfare, the demonic, the witchcraft, of visiting people with AIDS, disabled kids from the wars, and the stories sometimes it’s hard to process it all until afterwards; and I pray that God will allow me to process it more here in the next couple of weeks and as a team. But here we are coming into our last continent on this race and I can’t believe it’s less than three months already. We’re excited about Europe and our team just found out we’ll be working with an orphanage in Romania after the Awakening Conference in Ireland; we’re so excited.
