use your ears…

another thing JESUS says about improving communication in our relationships is you’ve got to use your ears.

and there is no better example of listening than GOD. psalm 116.1 (ncv), i love the LORD because HE listens to my prayers for help.

GOD hears everything. imagine this… HE hears billions of prayers everyday. some of my prayers don’t seem worth listening to when i think about them later. they’re selfish prayers, prayers that are just focused on me. they don’t think about others or the future. yet GOD listens to everyone of them. HE’s our example.

HE teaches us to be listeners also. the problem is, we’re not exactly a nation of listeners. we struggle with listening. it’s sort of built into our culture.

will rogers said about congress: “congress is so strange. a man gets up to speak and says nothing. nobody listens and then everybody disagrees.” that’s in our culture. that’s what we’re like.

listening is not our natural preference. most of us would rather be speaking than listening. most of us filter whatever we hear through our opinions, through what we’re going to say next. some experts say that we really only hear 20% or so of what’s being said to us. we’ve got to learn to use our ears.

proverbs 18.13 (tev), listen before you answer. if you don’t you’re being stupid and insulting.

if i don’t listen, i’m being stupid – it hurts me. if i don’t listen, i’m being insulting – it hurts you. but if i do listen, i’m being wise, it helps me. if i do listen, i’m being loving – it helps you. listening helps both you and others. it helps others because we all need someone who’s willing to listen to us.

there was this guy on a jury for a couple of days, a two-day trial. at the beginning of this trial they found out that he was a pastor. so at the lunch breaks and other breaks, during this trial, just these two days, ten of the eleven other jurors sought him out with a problem that they had in their lives – a divorce, something going wrong in their church, wife just died, going through ‘this’ in their family. why? because people desperately need someone who will listen to them. we all need that.

if you can learn to listen, you can change the lives of the people around you. no doubt. it helps them and it helps you. if you and i learn to listen, it makes us look good! and also, proverbs 21.23 (nlt), if you keep your mouth shut you will stay out of trouble. that’s another good reason to listen, you’ll stay out of trouble.

just a thought from the front porch…