Our God is a God who speaks. But He also listens.
Pastor Adam McHugh says we reflect God and His love not just by our words but by our attentiveness.
“Our New Testaments so often have the words of Jesus in red, as though the most important thing that He did was speak. He had some terribly profound things to say, but what about those acts of listening that He practiced?”
There are several examples of Jesus listening through out the Bible. In John 4, for example, Jesus listened to the Samaritan woman and heard what was going on below the surface.
“He hears her pain, He hears her hopes, He hears her longings, He hears her sins. He’s able to listen to what’s underneath. And His is kind of the listening that I aspire to.”
Here’s an excerpt from his book, .
“We find ourselves at the heart of the Gospel mystery – that the heavenly King not only speaks, but listens. That He not only commands obedience, but He obeys commands. God serving nature does not make Him servile to our desires. He does not serve out of us a slavish compulsion or hollow duty but out of a freely chosen posture of servant-hood because that is who He is. This is no ordinary king. From the very beginning of the Scriptures we find a God who does not hoard power but shares it. Created in God’s image, humans are given the kingly responsibility of co-ruling creation, subduing it, and representing the Lord to it.”
From Adam’s perspective, we’re called to listen because we’re made in God’s image.
“God in His very nature is a listener.”
The Lord also hears His people in the book of Exodus – to bring His people out of slavery.
“That blueprint for so much of God’s redemptive acts throughout history doesn’t start when Moses turned towards a burning bush, or the burning bush starts talking, or when Moses goes into the Pharaoh’s throne room. The Exodus starts when God listened.”
In the first chapter of Exodus, God hears the groans of His people who are in captivity. He turns to become their victor, their savior, and their King. That is the model Jesus present for us in the New Testament as well.
“The fact that we have a King who listens [shows that] God is unlike any other King in history.”
Key Scriptures: James 1:19
Featured Songs: Good, Good Father by Chris Tomlin; Amazed (by You) by Lincoln Brewster; Waiting Here for You by Christy Nockels
