{"id":3551,"date":"2015-12-05T05:20:35","date_gmt":"2015-12-05T10:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?p=3551"},"modified":"2015-11-29T19:21:45","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T00:21:45","slug":"the-art-of-listening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2015\/12\/the-art-of-listening.html","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Listening"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s hard to converse with\u00a0people who mumble or whisper. \u00a0There are two parts to a conversation: Speaking and listening. When we are having a conversation with God, listening is more important than speaking. \u00a0Psalm 85:8 says, “I will listen to God the Lord. He has ordered peace for those who worship Him.”\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The nation of Judea in the time of Babylon’s invasion and the fall of Jerusalem lived in their fallen national capitol. \u00a0Thousands of citizens were\u00a0carried away to Babylon. However, a few\u00a0of the people had been left in Jerusalem. They had been told by the Lord to stay in Jerusalem but they decided to go to Egypt. Jeremiah was forced to travel with them.\u00a0\u00a0 (Jeremiah 42)<\/p>\n

God told Jeremiah to speak to the people\u00a0again. Jeremiah\u00a0told them that they had not listened to the Lord again and again. \u00a0God told them that they would all die in Egypt.\u00a0God reminded them of all the ways He had spoken to them and how they had not listened. God told them that it was more important to listen to Him and to obey him than any thing else they might do.<\/p>\n

Jesus told his disciples, \u201cMy sheep know my voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was fearful and struggled with that for a long time. Like many people, I was afraid I would miss hearing God when He spoke to me. \u00a0One day the Holy Spirit\u00a0spoke to my heart, \u201cLinda, it isn\u2019t that you must be such a good listener. I am a very good caller.\u201d<\/p>\n

God knows\u00a0all of us and he loves us passionately. He knows how to speak\u00a0so that we\u00a0can understand Him. He knows us and he knows our unique voice.<\/p>\n

What we must do is have a heart that wants to hear God\u2019s voice and wants to be able to obey God when He speaks to us. \u00a0There is no magic pill we can take to be sure that we are hearing God. But we do have a great loving God who will direct and lead us if we are willing to hear and listen to him.<\/p>\n

The Lord speaks in a variety of ways. \u00a0The Bible tells us more than 90 percent of what we want to know about Him and His will for our lives. \u00a0The Church\u00a0has faithful teachers who write and speak with God’s authority. \u00a0And the Lord speaks to our hearts. \u00a0Iverna Thompkins once said, “You can tell the Lord is speaking to you when you have a thought that is smarter than you are.”<\/p>\n

The Lord wants to us to be able to obey. He will speak to us in a way that we can hear and understand Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s hard to converse with\u00a0people who mumble or whisper. \u00a0There are two parts to a conversation: Speaking and listening. When we are having a conversation with God, listening is more important than speaking. \u00a0Psalm 85:8 says, “I will listen to God the Lord. He has ordered peace for those who worship Him.”\u00a0 The nation of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,40,186,49,4],"tags":[21,688,18,699,684,426,683,682,6],"class_list":["post-3551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-simple-truths","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-discipleship","tag-faith","tag-fall-of-jerusalem","tag-jeremiah","tag-learning-to-listen-to-the-lord","tag-listening-to-the-lord","tag-simple-scriptural-truths"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Art of Listening - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are two parts to a conversation: Speaking and listening. When we are having a conversation with God, listening is more important than speaking.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2015\/12\/the-art-of-listening.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Art of Listening - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are two parts to a conversation: Speaking and listening. When we are having a conversation with God, listening is more important than speaking.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2015\/12\/the-art-of-listening.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-05T10:20:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-30T00:21:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Art of Listening - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"There are two parts to a conversation: Speaking and listening. 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