I must accept the fact that as I get older, my hearing is growing dull. I am not deaf. In fact, occasionally I have surprisingly keen hearing unless there is background noise. When that happens, deafness is not the issue. The issue is discernment. Even when the voice belongs to my precious wife or my beloved grandchildren, background noises like the hum of car engine or background music
in a restaurant will interfere with my discernment. I hear them speaking. I just cannot understand what they are saying. Thus, the inevitable “what,” “I am sorry,”
or “speak up.” This, then, is the problem. Sometimes we cannot do away with the background noise. In our family, all know that I need to see their faces when they
are speaking to me in a noisy environment. We can develop a similar problem spiritually. Our spiritual ears can grow dull, not because of age but because of misdirection. We pay more attention to noise of the world, and it begins to drown out what God desires to teach us through His word and our experiences. If you
want hear God, it is imperative that you spend time daily in reading and studying the Bible. That is the primary way He will speak to you. This primary means by which God speaks to us is not like an IV bag that hydrates out body when it is running dry. It is more like the adage of eight glasses of water daily. As we drink deeply from the scriptures daily, they constantly hydrate our spirits when circumstances or sin begin to dry them up. What has happened? Have we become so busy with politics, sports, television, smart phones, social networking, and outdoor life that we do not make time for the Bible? There is nothing wrong with those things until they begin to crowd out our desire to transformed by the power of God’s word. When that happens, our spiritual discernment begins to dull.
Jared Wilson wrote this in the Threadway Bible Study titled Abide. “The messages of the environments we are most in and the routines that we most practice shape our attitudes and behaviors” Did you get that? Where and how you spend your time will always shape the way you think and act. If you want to hear God, get into the practice of getting into His Presence early and often. Pray the prayer of Habakkuk as you pray for yourself, your family, your community, and our church. You can find it in the Old Testament book of Habakkuk, chapter 3, verse two.
