Slideshow image

So your grandmother was right when she said the good Lord gave you two ears and one mouth, because you should do twice as much listening as you do talking.  James 1:19, says lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.   

 

I would like to share with you today, a few reasons why listening is so essential to our relationship with God and with others.  

 

Listening reveals what we are most invested in.   

 

When we slow down and make the investment to listen to someone else talk, or by taking the time to put the other person in the spotlight, the implications are super valuable.  Listening will build trust, reduce conflict, encourage empathy and improves any and every type of relationship from romantic to professional.    When it comes to our relationships, the listening skill becomes essential to health.  When we stop listening to each other, the relationship will begin to break down.  Acts 2:42 tells us the early church “devoted” themselves to each other, meaning there was a high priority and an investment in building up one another, listening to the apostles teaching and breaking bread at the table together.  

 

The fruit of the spirit is reflected in every good listener.

 

Galatians 5:22-23 tell the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, kindness, faithfulness and self-control.  Each of these are produced in the heart of every good listener. Listening is an act of love, it oftentimes leads to peace and joy within relationships, its you becoming patient with kindness and gentleness, its you practicing self-control by lending an ear instead of an opinion.  Relationships built on faithfulness, loyalty, sincerity and trust, practice listening to each other often!  

 

Listening is a skill that involves hard work.

Some have a talent to listen, and sometimes listening is a great ministry gift from the Holy Spirit that we see in Christian counselors and friends….among the many types of listening though, I think the person who learns this skill is one who can draw understanding out of the depths of another person’s heart and soul.

 

Proverbs 20:5 — Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, But a man of understanding will draw it out. 

 

When we are searching for answers in the deep part of our soul, we need a good listener to draw out those answers.   

 

Listening helps our defense against pride and the noise of this world.

 

Pride becomes the barrier to restoration, creates a sense of defensiveness, restrains us from offering grace, and keeps us from taking advice from godly counselors.  Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  Proverbs 15:22 says “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”     We’ve heard the philosophical statement “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, did the tree make a sound?”  Today, there are a lot of trees falling in the forest, a lot of noise, a lot of opinions and people trying to be heard and understood.  But how much listening is happening, are we positioning ourselves in society to be heard or to hear others.  Are leading with our mouths or with our ears?

 

Our greatest teacher in listening is God.

Sometimes we feel that no one is listening, but we can be reassured, 

God is always listening! God is described as One who SEES, HEARS and SPEAKS to His people unlike the idols that are created by human hands.  

 

Psalm 135:15-18 ESV says, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.” 

 

God is living and active,  1 Peter 3:12 ESV says, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.” 

 

Psalm 34:17 ESV says, “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.” Our God is a listening God.

 

I wonder if we had a chance to talk with Mary and Martha, or the woman at the well, or how about Zacheaus up in the tree, or blind bartimaus,  and let’s not mention the conversations he must have had with his disciples off the record… 

 

Everyone has a place at the table with Jesus…we bring our cup full of sorrows, hurts, affliction, worries, fears and insecurities and before Jesus even speaks, he first allows us to empty that cup…in other words he waits and listens to your story of pain and disappointment…instead of trying to fill you when your cup is already full, he waits for you to empty yourself…and you can be sure, he invites you to His table, to empty yourself and to pour yourself out…just as you are…

 

So today, don’t be afraid to come to the table of Jesus, there is a place for you…and offer that same hospitality to someone else…lead with your ears, the relationships you are building are way more valuable than any of the opinions you think need to be heard!