Mark 4:25
" 25 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.”"
It's been a long time since I wrote a blog, and part of that is laziness, but part of it is because I want to keep my blog "real"; meaning I don't want to write an entry JUST to have an entry written. This is my own personal blog and no one is paying me to write it (does anyone WANT to pay me? I'd be ok with that!!) so I don't have a deadline to write things. That being said, I've missed writing my blog and today I was inspired to write a new one!
I have read this verse before, and at times just nodded my head and thought...yep, that's true! But today, I really looked at the verse. Today it spoke to me, if you will. I think it was the condition that caught my attention today. I know I've said this before, but it still seems to be ringing true in my life: I have a tendency to just skim over the words I'm reading in my Bible! This verse points out that particular habit of mine and paints it in a rather bad light as well!
How easy is it not to listen? If you have read my blog regularly, I'm betting you are thinking "um...Mrs. blog writer? Haven't you written this blog already this year?" and you'd be right! I did indeed write a blog about the version of this verse in Matthew back in January. But here's the thing, I still need to learn from it! I think that kind of proves the point that it's pretty easy NOT to listen!
I think that this is the year that God really teaches me a lesson about listening, and frankly I don't think it can come a minute too soon here either! I'm about to be a mother (6 1/2 weeks, for those who might be wondering or counting!!) and as far as I'm concerned, listening is a HUGE skill in mothering or parenting at all! I know that while I was growing up, especially in my dreaded teen years; I never thought my parents were listening to what I was saying. I thought they always just spoke right over my thoughts and tried to solve the problems without hearing the issues first. Now as an adult, I realize a good portion of that stems from the problem being the same over and over, but it doesn't change the fact that I wasn't feeling like I was being listened too. If I felt that way on a very teenaged, human level...what must God be feeling every time we just skim His word or ignore it all together?
This seemed to be a pretty big problem back when Jesus was walking this earth, so far I've found this verse in two of the Gospels so it must have been important enough that Jesus felt the need to point it out, and the writers felt the need to include it in their accounts of Jesus' life. I'm no scholar on the days of Jesus but I can only imagine that the distractions of that time, were nothing compared to the distractions of our technology age today. Think about all the things we have today, that even our parents didn't have. Of all that technology most of it is now mobile, so not only are we distracted at home, now we can be distracted on the go as well. God had to use some pretty big things to get the attention of the folks in Bible times, a massive flood, all the way to the death of His only Son; but if you've noticed, He keeps trying to get our attention.
I think the second part of this verse, the condition of: But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them, isn't what God wants for us. I think He wants to give us more knowledge and understanding, not take what little we have away. I can recall learning in Bible College that if something is important and you want your audience to remember it...then repeat it more then once. Jesus follows this practice on many occasions and this one is no different. He wants us to be listeners! He wants to grant us knowledge and understanding but we have to do our part to gain it. We have to listen, and not just the "in one ear and out the other" kind of listen but really pay attention to what it is He's trying to say to us, and try to learn from that bit of listening.
I have an example of this in my personal life. I think God's been trying to get me to listen to my health more for a long time; but He finally got my attention in the last several weeks when my doctor told me I have gestational diabetes. This particular form of diabetes is something that CAN happen to pregnant women, but my blood sugar issues are slightly different then most women who have GD. I won't go into details, but it seems that there have been some signs that I've had for awhile that I've been missing. Now that I know what is going on, and I'm listening to what my body is telling me, I'm much better off with several of those signs. I fully believe this was a "wake up call" if you will from God to start paying better attention to what I'm doing to my body, and not only that but I'm believing it IS an pregnancy issue that will go away once my precious daughter is in my arms. The point is, if I had been listening to my body all along; I might have known some things that would have made this "issue" a non issue to begin with; but I wasn't listening, I was just doing as I saw fit.
I don't want this same thing to happen in my spiritual life; as I know it has in the past. I want to listen and listen closely to what it is that God is telling me. Here's the thing, God doesn't just speak to us through His Word either, He speaks through others in our lives, so now I'm in the process of making sure that I LISTEN with my heart and mind at the same time and not leave God out of anything.
Lord, please help me to reconize when You are speaking to me, and really pay attention to Your words. Thank you, Amen!
