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Conclusion
Love God. Love others. Listen to God. Listen to others.
For the past forty days of devotion, we have done exactly that. By developing our listening skills, we are better equipped to fulfill the greatest command (Matt. 22:34-39).
And since you have worked for forty days to create a new habit, don’t stop now! You are well equipped to continue your devotion to listening to God and listening to one another. For me, personally, my renewed commitment to listening can be summed up in the following two phrases, which I have repeated consistently over the past six weeks:
“Speak for your servant is listening.”
“I’m listening to the still, small voice.”
I still find it a struggle to listen. The noise of life invades my thoughts, even as I first awaken. C.S. Lewis* put it this way:
The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.
We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through.
My prayer for you specifically is that the things you have heard over the past forty days not be like a white-washed coating of paint. Rather, may what you have heard soak deep into your soul, transforming your heart, renewing your mind, and filling you with strength.
Love God. Love others. Listen to God. Listen to others.
Thanks for joining us on this listening journey. I can’t wait to hear what God does in our lives from this point forward as we continue to listen!
*Mere Christianity
We would love to hear from you! Please share with us what you are hearing and how you are growing in your devotion to listening.
This blog post is taken from the book Called to Listen: Forty Days of Devotion. To order a copy of this book, please visit our website and invite a friend to participate in the study with you. The book includes additional guides and questions to be reviewed in a small group context weekly.
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Week 6: Listening through the five senses
Touch and Hear His Goodness
Week 6, Day 5
Listening through touch is a bit more challenging for us to put into practice through these 40 days of devotion. However, I want to invite you to put on your thinking cap. Put on your listening ears. It is a physical act that mirrors our spiritual invitation. We are commanded to love with heart, soul, mind and strength (Matt. 22:36-40). And this means listening with heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Run your finger over your ears, noticing the detail with which God made the unique folds and bends in the cartilage. No two ears are alike. And while the ears on the outside of our head help us filter the sound, that is not where the listening takes place. The sound travels through the ear canal and vibrates the small bones and membrane, sending signals to our brain, which we interpret into speech and sound. As our final listening exercise, through writing or drawing, we will use the sense of touch as a reminder that we have been “Called to Listen.” We will renew our commitment to listen to our Master and our devotion to Him.
On the first ear (left): Write or draw the things you have heard from God and reminders of how He speaks to you personally.
For the second ear (right):
In the curve of the ear, write out the phrase “Speak, for your servant is listening” (1 Sam. 3:10b). And add a piercing to the drawing, in representation of the passage in Exodus 21:5-6 (NIV) and our renewed devotion to the Master.
5 “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.
We would love to hear from you! Please share with us what you are hearing and how you are growing in your devotion to listening.
This blog post is taken from the book Called to Listen: Forty Days of Devotion. To order a copy of this book, please visit our website and invite a friend to participate in the study with you. The book includes additional guides and questions to be reviewed in a small group context weekly.