Psalm 95:6-7

Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today!

These words of invitation are often used at the beginning of church services to remind us of how wonderful God is, and how much he deserves our worship. However, although God is perfect and worthy of our complete devotion, he will never impose himself on us. It is up to us to respond, and listening is a crucial part of that response. The sad reality is that we often fail to listen. The psalmist reflects on a time when the people of Israel did just that. They were at the start of their wilderness wanderings and there was no water to drink. I don’t want to minimise the acute difficulty of such a dilemma, but the people’s response was to complain and not to listen to God. Although he had miraculously delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and provided regular food for them through the provision of quail and manna, they immediately blamed him. Happily, Moses did listen to God, and the result was that he struck the rock at Horeb and fresh water came gushing out.

In his letter, James challenges his readers: “You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry” (James 1:19). James seems to have had an acute understanding of how people tick. He knew the grim truth that we are inclined to be quick to speak and get angry, and slow to listen. It’s easy to understand why: listening is hard work. It demands time and effort, and when we are facing a difficulty, we are inclined to want an instant response. Listening sounds like a very slow and unattractive option.

The Bible is astonishingly honest about the repeated disasters of the people of Israel, which all occurred because they stopped listening. If only they had listened, things would have gone so very differently. It is the same for us today. We need to be quick to listen, knowing that God loves to speak with us and will be seeking to do so today through other people, the Bible, literature, music, art, nature and 1,000 other ways.

Question

How could you improve your ability to listen to God?

Prayer

Loving God, thank you that you love to speak to me. Help me to listen hard for your voice today. Amen