Are You Listening?
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us….” Hebrews 12: 1
God helps those who don’t try to take over His work. Some folks are waiting around to fill a vacancy in the Trinity. It’s not going to happen.
There is an acute difference in listening and hearing.
To hear means to perceive sounds that do not register or require a response. To listen means to pay thoughtful attention so a proper response can be made.
While playing a video game a child may hear the parents voice saying something, but it doesn’t register and there is no response. The reason is the child is tuned in and listening to the sounds of the game.
As a child living in a very small isolated little town with no radio station I used to listen at night to WWL, the clear channel station out of New Orleans. It was long before stereo, digital, and other wonderful refinements. It being an AM station the sound often wavered and faded a bit. There was often static. How impressed I was that I could listen to the voice of Bonnie Bell originating from the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans. There were frequent interruptions in the broadcast but I would strain to hear what was being broadcast. All the while I was listening to what they were saying, I was hearing sounds which didn’t really register. A dog barking, a train passing through town, or other folks talking didn’t keep me from listening to what I wanted to.
This text calls on us to tune into what the Lord has to say and tune out, that is not listen, to distractions.
Many of the statements of Jesus are introduced by Him saying, “Verily, verily I say unto you.” Literally, “Listen, listen…” Be attentive.
If we don’t, we will drift away from them. The expression used in our text was often used of evaporation. Positive productive thoughts slip our minds like water inconspicuously evaporates.
Therefore, we need to give them “more earnest heed.” “Proscchein” the Greek word so translated carries the meaning not only to focus our minds on the truths, but to act upon them. If we keep on acting on them we won’t forget them.
The influences of the world are designed to defeat us, even destroy us. There is a colorful country song that describes it. “They tore my heart out and stomped that sucker flat.”
Reflect! To hear means to perceive sounds that do not register or require a response. To listen means to pay thoughtful attention so a proper response can be made. Are you listening to what you are hearing from Jesus? If you are hearing His word and acting on it, that is your defense against the wiles of the world.