Week 5 Day 6: And Heard

"The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4:9 NASB

To hear is a passive verb that requires no action, but the term heard is a little different. It is a verb that can mean to gain knowledge by the ears. It means to listen with attention. Paul is not just talking about the capacity to perceive sound; he is talking about gaining information that is necessary for our spiritual life. Hearing is an important part of obedience.

How many times has a parent called out for a child to come home and they didn’t respond? When the child finally does come home, one of the first things the parent says is “didn’t you hear me”? Parents want to believe their kids didn’t actually hear them calling because to hear and not obey is a form of rebellion and disrespect. Welcome to God’s world. That is how He feels when He gives instructions that we hear, then stubbornly do our own thing.

There is a danger in ignoring what our ears hear. Our brains have the ability to disregard sounds if we ignore them often enough. We still hear the sounds/words, but when we don’t act on it, our minds will begin to discount the sound all together. Eventually our minds will perceive that the information is not important so it will actually tune it out. We will no longer have the ability to hear it. That is so very dangerous for our hearts.

When Moses, the prophets and Jesus talk about hardened hearts this is what they are talking about. If we don’t listen to what our ears hear, learn from the information we receive and act on it, our hearts will harden. The Sadducee and Pharisee were so puffed up with their own knowledge, their hearts were hardened to the truth of who Jesus is and what He came to do. We choose to harden our hearts when we willingly ignore the things we don’t want to hear, like our parents calling us home.

God will do many different things to snap our minds to attention so we can hear Him. For Elijah, God sent a wind that broke rocks into pieces, then He sent an earthquake to literally shake him. Finally, He sent a fire to draw His eyes off the desperation of his situation to God's greatness. Once He had Elijah’s attention, God spoke to him in “a gentle breeze,” in a whisper. He didn’t yell or fuss, but He did have to get Elijah’s attention and break his negative thought patterns so he could hear from God.

More than a dozen times when Jesus spoke He said, "Let anyone who has ears to hear, listen…” Jesus did not yell at or argue with the people. He got their attention by performing miracles, then He spoke the Truth with Love. When He said, “If you have ears to hear, listen." He was saying, “Allow the sound waves of my voice to travel from your ears to your mind, pay attention to what I say and act on it." 

Are you good at tuning out certain sounds or people? What are some times in your life when God may have been trying to snap you to attention?

Meditate on “and heard" today.