What are you saying Lord?
For the last few weeks, I cannot hear out of my right ear. I don’t and have not had a cold, so no stuffy nose or blocked ear canal from that. I have not been swimming so no water behind the eardrum. I don’t seem to have wax in it, but I definitely can’t hear properly.
It makes me ask people to repeat often what they are saying to me.
Spiritually I asked myself – are there times when I can’t hear God? I’m either not listening to Him or maybe I’m too distracted by other things? Maybe not spending enough time with Him to hear His voice?
Or could it be there are other things in my life blocking me hearing His voice?
It states in John:
“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”
John 10:27 NRSV
To hear the Lord’s voice, we need to be His sheep and He our shepherd. We have spent time with Him to know His voice, His personality, His presence. Our Shepherd already knows us completely and loves us completely and when the relationship is working right, we follow Him, follow His voice, follow His instructions.
What is simply amazing is that all are called into the Sheepfold.
The book of Revelations tells us this.
Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.
Revelations 3:20 NRSV
And when we are following Our Shepherd, we will hear His guiding words as stated in Isaiah:
And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’
Isaiah 30:21 NRSV
But if we are not careful in keeping our hearts soft, keeping them far from bitterness and unforgiveness we might be the people who The Holy Spirit cautions us to not be.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
Hebrews 3:7-8 NRSV
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
as on the day of testing in the wilderness,
So, I have to often ask myself (and maybe this is the question you have to answer too) – Is Jesus, your Lord and Saviour, being given a priority in your life? Are you giving Him your time, your heart, your mind, all of you?
So even though physically my hearing is not fully working may I be fully focused on hearing spiritually the living God. May I glorify Him with my life!
May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’
Love
Rosemary
Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Can you think of a time when you found it difficult to hear someone? Maybe you are experiencing that more and more in life. How does it affect you?
When you think of hearing from God do you find it easy to hear his voice? If so, why do you think you find it easy to hear Him? If not, why do you think you find it challenging?
Take some time to reflect on how much time you spend with God. What could you do to give God more time and attention?
8 Comments
Sandie Murray
Prayers for your hearing.. I had ringing in my ears and a hearing problem for several months. I have prayed for your health, blessings of a home and car.. time more special times with your spouse. Truth be told…if every wife would pray for their husband the way you do this entire world would be DIFFERENT! Blessing on you both and your family and team. The best is yet to come and I don’t mean Heaven.. I mean on earth as it is in Heaven.. so that is exactly how our Savior taught us to pray. It is no coincidence that that the Holy Catholic Church Bishops have dedicated this year starting in June is dedicated to the Blessed Sacred Heart of Jesus and I carry it further to the Immuculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother. 🙏 for His perfect will in each of our lives!
Rose Chan
Thank you Rosemary for the reminder – lately I have been so caught up with home renovations, office work etc…so much so that I am spending less time with our Lord. Being so tired out at the end of each day… I have even skipped my nightly reading & reflection of My Daily Bread.
– Thru your reminder, He is calling me to “COME BACK”
Carla Villafana Villafana
Thank you Rosemary. I too am starting to experience hearing loss. I do know however that when I ask God for help I need to ” listen” for his response. Believe me I have ” heard” his response, his choice, many times. And for that I am ever grateful. May He continue to bless you in all you do.
Valerie Lack
Oh Rosemary, I am so sorry this happened to you, I can certainly empathise with you on this.
Nine years ago something similar happened to me and at the worst possible time. The result is that I now have hearing aids. My husband is always asking me “ Did you hear me” because I often don’t respond to him talking to me or I only get the last word and try to guess the rest.
I do so hope that this is just a transient thing.
I asked the question of my God Is this happening because I don’t listen or are you taking my ability to hear because I don’t hear what you are saying to me. I thought that maybe because I didn’t listen to others properly or hear what they were saying, really saying behind the words, that God had decided that I no longer needed that sense.
Who knows, but it is definitely limiting and another challenge to face.
Praying that The Good and Gracious God who with his son and Holy Spirit guide and sustain us works within you to remedy this affliction
Valerie Lack
Or maybe it is a gift from God. If we can’t hear the world and what it is saying, perhaps we will hear the voice of God more clearly.
Carla Villafana Villafana
Yes! God giving us a way to focus more on Him. I tried hearing aids. Too soon for me. The world got loud and I last sone of my peace. So I returned them after my 3 week trial. But now I know I must focus to listen.
john kearney john
Hi Often i feel both in my ear as if I thought Ghost speak to me .. I would open my mind like ” I am sorry I dont never would understand you Ghost or whoever you are all right .!? .” and move on…
Beacuse I am profoundly Deaf since birth ,, I have no clue of hearing things or words saying to me ..
I think my heart could tell me if God give some idea not by my ears ..that is I could do .. Hope God listen
john kearney john
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