Be Ready to Listen

“Welcome, come in. I have prepared the front room for you. Go on in and make yourselves comfortable.” Martha spoke those words and then rushed to the kitchen to quickly fix drinks and some food. Mary heard the words welcoming Jesus and his disciples. She slipped into the room and quietly sat at Jesus’ feet. She wanted to listen to what he had to say. Mary was ready to listen.

Mary put aside the distractions. She wasn’t distracted by the banging of pans in the kitchen. She didn’t even notice the others in the room. She was focused on what Jesus was saying. To listen you need to be able to put aside the distractions.

Listening requires that you be quiet not just the physical sounds but learn to quiet our minds and our hearts. Do you ever just sit in silence? No music in the background or no pings and notifications just silence. Learn to be comfortable with physical silence. Then learn to just quiet your mind and heart. For me, I find a quick brain dump, write down all the things that come to my mind. Then just rest my mind.

It took courage to just sit and listen. The courage to ignore the looks from Martha that were saying, “get in here and help.” The courage to be a woman sitting at the feet of a Jewish teacher.

From the weakness of being a woman, Mary dared to listen. That required courage. There is strength in listening.

Learning to listen requires discipline. Listening is not passive but active. Are you ready to listen?

Be Ready to Listen to God

He wasn’t ready to listen to God. Honestly, God had been silent for so long. He didn’t even know that God speaks to people. It was just another night curled up on his mat in the temple with the lamp of God still dimly lit. He heard a voice calling him. Samuel jumped up from his mat and went to Eli, “Here I am!” Eli had not called him. It happened again and again. The third time Eli suggested that he respond, “Speak, LORD for your servant hears.” Samuel learned to be ready to listen to God and God did speak to him that night.  Read I Samuel 3:1-14 for the whole event.

Listening to God is the most important person you can listen to. God’s words are powerful. In the beginning, it was through his words that the world came to being. God’s words give us direction (Psalm 119:105). God’s words give us comfort when that is what we need. His words also give rebuke when necessary.

You need to be ready to listen to God. Use Samuel’s words as a prayer asking God to speak to you. Then be ready to listen.

Be Ready to Listen to Others

Listening to others is important. James is very clear about this in James 1:19 “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;” Are you quick to hear?

When you are quick to hear, you are putting others and their thoughts, feeling, and concerns before your own. When you are quick to hear, you are loving them and showing value to that person.

You need to learn to listen to others and not be ready to share all your experiences that relate to what they are talking about. That is not really listening but rather planning what you are going to say. You need to learn to listen. I

You listen to others when we are silent. Learn to be okay with silence in a conversation. Every second does not need to be filled with speech. I will admit that is a hard one for me. At times I count in my head just to keep my mouth from speaking.

Learn to ask questions that clarify what the other person is saying or questions that help them to think and reflect. Asking questions can be a way of engaging deeper with the other person. Give them time to think about the question.

Be Ready to Listen to Yourself

Do you know the person that talks to you the most? It is you. Think about the things you say to yourself. Are you speaking negatively to yourself? “There is no way you can do this.” or maybe you say things like, “This always happens on a Monday.” 

Listen to yourself so you can hear what you are saying and then begin to speak the truth, God’s words of grace, comfort, encouragement, and at times rebuke.

I placed this third in the listen of Be Ready to Listen. I do think it is important but if we are not learning to listen to God then we are not able to speak the truth in our own lives. We want to be careful that we are not so inward focused that we are failing to listen and value others. I do think there is value in listening to yourself at times.

 

There is strength in listening. Do you have the courage to listen? It might not be what others are doing. It will require ignoring some things so that you can spend your time listening. God who is speaking has called us to listen. Be Read to Listen.

If you are looking for a book to read on this subject, one that I would recommend is The Listening Life by Adam McHugh.

This is part of the series of Learn to Be which is the focus for 2021. The theme for January was Be Ready. Be ready to Listen one of the 3 Ways to be Ready for a year.