Finishing WellSample

  Develop Keen Listening Skills

Next week we celebrate Gotcha Day, the day that commemorates picking up our first adopted child. This little girl entered our family as a normal healthy baby. But those first days were anything but normal. That child laid eerily silent in her bed. When we sat her up, she would open her mouth, as if to cry, but no sound came out. Nothing at all.

Our baby had learned in her short life that when she cried, nobody came. Why bother using energy? No help would be given. Crying out was pointless.

Maybe you have found yourself in a similar position, feeling like your efforts to be heard are futile. Let me encourage you not to give up. There could be a number of reasons that play into a breakdown in communication here.

It could be you are not a child of God. Jesus says my sheep know my voice, otherwise Christianity is just noise. Intimacy with God cannot begin until you first become His child by believing that Jesus died as a sacrifice for your sin, and forgiving you of that sin. You can’t finish well if you’ve never actually started the matter. Becoming a child of God is your first step.

Maybe you are a Christian, but you know sin is crowding out everything else in your life. You can’t move on until you deal with it. Don’t put it off another moment. Seek forgiveness. Be refreshed and let His voice fall on you sweetly and tenderly.

Or maybe you have been listening to other voices. It could be discouragements and the anxieties of life have given way to fears, hindering your discernment abilities, and your desire for spending time to hear from God. Whatever the reason now is the perfect time for distinguishing the voice of God in your life from all other voices, and the Bible tells us how.

Romans 10:17 assures us our faith is built up through developing keen listening skills acquired through the Word of God.  John 16:13 promises we are not left alone to figure it out. We have the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us, which often takes the form of focused prayer or writing in a journal.

What is one thing you can do today to develop better listening skills with the Lord?