My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about listening to God, listening to His voice. It’s something that pops into my mind from time to time and it did again today. I began thinking about listening to His voice. Many times, people say you need to hear the voice of God. I started thinking about how those words mean different things. Let’s look at those two words for a minute, hearing versus listening.
To best understand we need to look at the definitions of those two words. Hearing is to experience sound. When sound is perceived, it is heard. Listening is to pay attention to sound, pay attention. Do you see the difference? We hear sounds all the time but when we pay attention to the sounds, really pay attention, then we are listening to the sounds. Listening to a sound means you are processing it more thoroughly, it’s more meaningful.
Now let’s apply these words to God. Do you hear His voice? Or do you listen to His voice? We often hear the voice of God but don’t listen. We don’t pay attention and take in the message He wants us to receive. Sometimes God tries many times, and many times we hear what He says but we don’t pay attention.
We need to pray to God for the ability to listen, process, discern, take to heart, and find the knowledge of God. When we take the time to truly listen to His voice, and follow His voice, it leads us through the clouds that obscures the rocky cliffs like an air traffic controller’s voice leads a pilot through a storm.
Listen to His voice, He will lead you straight on the path to a beautiful eternity.