One thing God has been teaching me these last couple days is to listen to His voice and His command. It has taught me the difference between simply hearing and intently listening. If my heart is consistently awaiting His calling and desiring His instruction, then I am truly listening and better able to live out my faith in Jesus.

Through this lesson on listening, I have learned how simple this faith, this walk with Christ, really can be. Quite often, I catch myself and even other Christians, talking about all these actions or characteristics that we need to change in order to get our relationship straightened out with Jesus. Though it is said with a good heart and desire to be true followers, we are more than likely just making it all much more complicated and difficult to live this faith.

Let me give you two examples to clear up what I am trying to say. The first is a bit more of a worldly example, but it is something that we all experience. So, let’s say I am going to math class. For the first part of the semester, everything is going great, I’m making good grades and learning a lot. Then, halfway through, it all goes downhill. Grades start slipping and my understanding of the material is nearly non-existent. At this point, I begin to devise a plan. I tell myself and others that I am going to start studying more, I will work on extra problems, I will stop doing other tasks that could be a distraction and so on. Now, this all sounds noble and like it could possibly work out for me. That is until I realize that I am focusing so much on how I am going to fix the problem instead of paying attention to what the teacher is doing. What was originally supposed to help will now be a distraction and set me back in learning. The much easier way to fix my math problem would be to more intently listen to what the teacher is saying in class, then match it up with what the book says or what my notes say. If I need extra help, wouldn’t it make much more sense to go in after class and listen to the teacher’s guidance, than it is to leave class and hope that if I sit and struggle long enough that I can somehow work this problem out?

Anyone picking up what I’m putting down here?

All right, now to the second example. This one is straight from the Bible, and can be found in Genesis chapters 12 through 25. I know, I just threw out a huge chunk of scripture and you are probably thinking no way am I about to go and read all of that. First off, I hope that you really will go read this at some point. Second, it is such a large portion because it is all about the life of Abram, later known as Abraham. Let me lay these 14 chapters out for you really quickly. It can all be summed up to listening. Abraham is known for his great faith in God. His faith is written about all over scripture, and even God said Abraham was a great man of faith. When you take a moment to read his story, you begin to realize that the only reason his faith was so great was because all he did was listen to God, who lead him to great success. Every good thing that happened in Abraham’s life came from listening when God said go. Abraham patiently waited for the voice of his Heavenly Father, and obeyed when that time came.

Now, Abraham was not perfect. There was a time when he tried to take matters into his own hands in order to have a son. These actions later cause great trouble not only for himself, but for those around him. So we see again that human effort can never compare to the divine instruction of God.

There’s the secret. In order to have an amazing relationship with Jesus, and to live out this faith, the best thing we can do is to just listen. Taking matters into our own hands only brings more difficulty and sometimes hurt. Be patient, and listen for the voice of the Lord.

1 Samuel 3:10 - “And the Lord came and called as before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel replied, ‘Speak, your servant is listening.’"