Three Ways I Want to Adopt a Listening Mindset

In last week’s sermon text, 2 Peter 1:19-21, Peter exhorted his readers to attend to Scripture carefully, “as to a lamp shining in a dark place,” (v. 19). That would have been a vivid image for Peter’s audience. Without the aid of artificial light, a lamp shining in a dark place would have been a powerful source of illumination in the ancient world.  

What does it mean to give that kind of attention to God’s Word?

In a story that was ancient even in Peter’s day, the boy Samuel thought he heard someone call for him in the middle of the night. Samuel had been set apart for God’s service as a small child, and he lived with Eli the Judge of Israel. Samuel assumed what he heard was the voice of Eli. When he went to Eli, he was told that he was hearing things and should go back to bed.

The same thing happened again, followed by another command to go back to bed. When it happened a third time, Eli realized that Samuel was hearing from God. So he told the young boy to respond this time: “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears” (1 Sam 3:10).

I think that’s my new life motto: “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”

If you’re like me, you hear dozens if not hundreds of voices clamoring for your attention all day long. I see so much advertising that processing all that marketing has become an unconscious process that takes up way too much of my emotional and psychological bandwidth. Unless I consciously turn my attention to God’s Word, the still, small voice of God’s Spirit can be drowned out in the cacophony.

Apparently, if I want to attend to God’s Word “as to a lamp shining in a dark place,” it’s going to take some intentional effort on my part. In other words, there’s nothing natural or easy about adopting a listening posture.

But if I want to hear from God, I must learn to listen. There are three specific ways I need to adopt a listening posture.

1. I need to adopt a listening posture in silence.

Silence and solitude are two of the classic spiritual disciplines, much neglected in our hyper-stimulated world. I know that when I have a few moments to myself, my impulse is to pull out my phone and play a couple of turns of Scrabble or check my social media feeds. It takes a conscious and determined effort on my part to still my mind and say to God, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”

Better yet, I can set aside a few minutes in the morning to quiet my heart and listen to the Spirit’s inner promptings, reminding me of His Word, His promises, His comforting Presence.

2. I need to adopt a listening posture when I’m speaking with others.

I need to adopt a listening posture in my interactions with others for two reasons:

• I have often found that God echoes His Word in the words of other believers. God says something to me in His Word, then a brother or sister mentions the same thought in a wholly unrelated conversation. God’s Spirit primarily uses His Word to speak to me, but He also uses His people to confirm His Word – to confront, to comfort, to edify, to instruct.
• I need to adopt a listening posture to practice neighbor-love. I need to know what is on the heart of my unbelieving neighbor or my brother or sister in Christ. I come to know the hearts and lives of people around me by listening, paying attention to what God is doing in their lives.

3. I need to adopt a listening posture when I engage the Scripture.

I have railed elsewhere and often against checklist spirituality (recently in “A Bible Reading Plan That Works,” January 4, 24), so I won’t rehearse that diatribe. But we all know how easy it is to “read” the Bible without engaging with it at all, to read (or study or listen) without reflecting on what my eyes or ears have perceived.

In other words, I cannot assume that if I am reading the Bible, I am hearing from God. So before I engage with God’s Word, as I am engaging with God’s Word, I need to adopt the same listening posture: “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”

Listening is a lost art.
 
I don’t want to be that distracted guy whose whole life is one long adventure in missing the point.

I want to be a man who is cultivating the habit of listening closely to what God’s Spirit is saying to His people, to me.

“Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”

Persevere,
Paul Pyle
Pastor of Discipleship