If Only we would Listen

“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice, “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” Psalm 95:6-11

We are a generation that is quick to speak and slow to listen. Quick to see what we think, to speak our mind, prove our point, yeah we don’t take the time to listen to the other side.

I was like this up until I went to college, up until God got my attention for not listening to him for a “few – high school” years. In my learning to listen to him, I also learned to listen to others, so much that I stop speaking at all (in conversations that is). It’s actually when I begin to write. I started getting my voice back through writing.

Listening to God and others is the only way We’ll ever be able to know the Way to go, to understand what others are going through or have been through. Listening Allows for us to grow in wisdom, knowledge, compassion, love, grace, and mercy.

But as I began to listen more to others I learned how not many people wanted to listen back, they only wanted to be heard.

I firsthand witnessed that when a break in a conversation would come and I’d have a chance to speak, to share my thoughts or opinions, I’d get someone speaking over me…someone pointing my thought back to them…someone defending their statement or many times just no space to speak at all. There are so many thoughts buried in the back of my mind in the core of my soul that over the past month I realized how much I actually love to speak, yet I never will, because I refuse to speak over anyone. It’s truly frustrating.

I know this must be how God feels. He thinks, if only we would listen to his voice then our life would be different. If only we would hear what he had to say then our world would be changed. But instead of listening, we choose to do it our way, to question him, to cry to him but never wait for him to speak back. If only we would be more willing to listen instead of fighting to be heard. I’m positive there would be better communication and we would get to the heart of the matter. We would learn what great plans God has for us, and we would experience his goodness in the land of the living. If only we would listen.

“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.“ Psalm 27:13-14

Listen.