The Listening Disciple
The Lord wants us to listen to Him and obey Him. He does not want us to be dull of hearing, slow to respond, or to refuse obedience even when the task He gives is full of suffering and shame – as that to which He called the servant in Isa 50:6. We are to yield to Him. We listen for His word and give it to others. His words can breathe courage into those who need it for a particular area.
Waiting for His word can be difficult. Yet, we will never be disappointed when we wait for the Lord in faith (Isa 49:23, TEV). He can give us words that help sustain others and ourselves as well. Such encouraging words are a privilege for servants to hear and convey. This is especially true when such words bring hope to dark and apparently hopeless situations (Isa 50:10, TEV). To hear such words, though, we must prioritize listening to the Lord (Isa 50:4-5, JB).
Listening to Him does not always mean sitting quietly, giving full attention to hearing from Him through such means as Bible reading. He is concerned with the activities of our day that are necessary. He wants to speak to us about more matters than we might think as we go about our daily activities. For example, I was at the computer this morning, writing the previous ‘thought for each day.’ The plumber had been going in and out of the house but I always heard him close the heavy security screen. On about the fifth trip when he went out, I listened for the security screen to close and it quickly did as it had on the other occasions. Nevertheless, I had the thought that our housecat, Cuddles, had gotten out and that I needed to go and get him right away. Disciples get trained in hearing from God partly through trial-and-error, so I quickly got up and went to the front door in case it was the Lord speaking to me. It was. Cuddles had apparently just gotten out as he was only two steps off the front porch. Had I waited he probably would have been gone. In particular, my daughter and wife would have been quite sad – and I would not have wanted to tell them I had lost him! Even had Cuddles eventually come back, Sara would have had less confidence in my reliability to safeguard what is important to her. “Thank you, Lord!”
He wants to talk to us about the details of our lives. Let’s listen to Him!
Comforting others is costly but worth it.