Tag Archives: listening

Less Shouting, More Listening

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How I love to shout,
to share my opinions,
to make it sound
as if I have all the answers
and know everything.

I think I am right
and anyone who thinks differently
is wrong.
And I don’t want to hear
anything else.

But if I will just hear
that other voice,
your voice,
speaking,
teaching,
guiding,
even rebuking,
I would learn so much,
be so different;
know your ways
become more like you,
be a much more useful person
and save myself
a lot of grief.

Lord,
help me to listen.
Still me,
quieten me,
that I may hear the other,
you
and know what you think
– which is so much more important,
so much better,
so right.

Word of God Speak

Proverbs 1:20-33 (CEV)

Wisdom Speaks

20 Wisdom shouts in the streets
    wherever crowds gather.
21 She shouts in the marketplaces
and near the city gates
    as she says to the people,
22 “How much longer
will you enjoy
    being stupid fools?
Won’t you ever stop sneering
    and laughing at knowledge?
23     Listen as I correct you
    and tell you what I think.
24 You completely ignored me
    and refused to listen;
25 you rejected my advice
and paid no attention
    when I warned you.

26 “So when you are struck
    by some terrible disaster,
27 or when trouble and distress
surround you like a whirlwind,
    I will laugh and make fun.
28 You will ask for my help,
    but I won’t listen;
    you will search,
    but you won’t find me.
29 No, you would not learn,
    and you refused
    to respect the Lord.
30 You rejected my advice
and paid no attention
    when I warned you.

31 “Now you will eat the fruit
    of what you have done,
    until you are stuffed full
    with your own schemes.
32 Sin and self-satisfaction
bring destruction and death
    to stupid fools.
33 But if you listen to me,
you will be safe and secure
    without fear of disaster.”

Living in Love

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You want me to be yours,
your special one,
one with your special people.
you invite me to be yours
and shower me with your gifts.

Living with you
means living your way,
living your love,
in love,
with you
and with those
who my life rubs up against.

Lord,
forgive me when I get angry,
when I so quickly flare up
instead of taking the time to listen,
to hear,
to view from a different angle
and understand.

Anger blinds me,
it stops me seeing the good,
the profound,
the holy.
Save me from arrogance
and bring me
to humility.

Help me to listen to you,
because listening
demands a response,
an action,
a purpose
and a call.
My tongue can take me
so far from that.

Lord,
help me to speak,
think,
and do
only what shows love for you,
lived out in love for others,
through your love for me.

As I live in your love for me,
may that love
control and direct
all I do or say,
and stop me
when I am tempted
to step outside
of loves ways.

Wonderful Grace

James 1:17-27 (CEV)

17 Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father who created all the lights in the heavens. He is always the same and never makes dark shadows by changing. 18 He wanted us to be his own special people, and so he sent the true message to give us new birth.

Hearing and Obeying

19 My dear friends, you should be quick to listen and slow to speak or to get angry. 20 If you are angry, you cannot do any of the good things that God wants done. 21 You must stop doing anything immoral or evil. Instead be humble and accept the message that is planted in you to save you.

22 Obey God’s message! Don’t fool yourselves by just listening to it. 23 If you hear the message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror 24 and forget what they look like as soon as they leave. 25 But you must never stop looking at the perfect law that sets you free. God will bless you in everything you do, if you listen and obey, and don’t just hear and forget.

26 If you think you are being religious, but can’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and everything you do is useless. 27 Religion that pleases God the Father must be pure and spotless. You must help needy orphans and widows and not let this world make you evil.

Waiting to Hear

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I tried, how I tried, to run away.

I heard your call, knew what you were asking me, but ran the other way.

I knew you needed me, but surely there was someone else, another person who could go and do what you were asking of me.  Someone just as qualified as me, if not more.  There were people waiting, needing to hear, but I chose to go a different way.  I just didn’t want to do what you were asking of me.

But despite that, you continued to call.  Your work for me did not change.  My opting out had not made the need go away. You were still willing to call me, equip me, use me.

So I went, did as you asked, followed your call – and the people heard and responded.  How wonderfully you worked, despite my reluctance and disobedience.  You didn’t cast me aside, or the people of Nineveh.  Your word was heard and lives were changed.

Jonah 3:1-5, 10 (GNT)

Jonah Obeys the Lord

3 Once again the Lord spoke to Jonah. 2 He said, “Go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to the people the message I have given you.” 3 So Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to walk through it. 4 Jonah started through the city, and after walking a whole day, he proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!”

5 The people of Nineveh believed God’s message. So they decided that everyone should fast, and all the people, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth to show that they had repented.

10 God saw what they did; he saw that they had given up their wicked behavior. So he changed his mind and did not punish them as he had said he would.

So, here I am Lord,
reluctant,
unsure,
really rather wanting not to;
but you continue to call me,
to invite me
to share in your work.

Here I am Lord.
Use me
I pray.
Despite my weaknesses
and fear;
may I work with you,
as you work in me;
because there are people
waiting to hear,
waiting to respond
as you long to reach out.