One Sided

I know many of us pray. Some pray more than others, some don't stop praying, but have you ever stopped to listen to God's voice in response? This might seem ludicrous, but it's something many who call Jesus Lord have either not done, or stopped doing, and that is being intimate with God's word, the Bible. Romans 12:2 tells us that we can be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that by testing, we may know God's will, what is good, and pleasing, and perfect. Romans 10:17 says faith comes by HEARING, and hearing through the word of God. So you see, many of us talk (at times, I'm guilty of this) without hearing. It becomes a one sided conversation where we expect God to listen, and we give Him no room to respond. If you treated your friends this way, your boss this way, your spouse or family this way, how would these relationships deteriorate? My guess is that each relationship would suffer, but they'd not really last long. Yet if I look at many of my relationships, I've been guilty of listening to respond, instead of hearing. What would it look like if you became intimate with God's word? How would you see prayer answered in God's word? We may know God's will through God's word, but we have to open it to hear it! Let us then speak to God in prayer, yes, but listen to hear by opening His word, becoming intimate with it, and letting God speak in to our lives through His word. Hebrews 4:6-13 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.