Devotion - My Utmost for His Highest

February 13
The Devotion of Hearing

1 Samuel 3:10 - "Samuel answered, ’Speak, for Your servant hears’"

Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, "You are My friends . . ." ( John 15:14 ). Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord’s this week? If I had realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not have deliberately disobeyed it. But most of us show incredible disrespect to God because we don’t even hear Him. He might as well never have spoken to us.

The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41 ). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God all the time through the devotion of hearing. A flower, a tree, or a servant of God may convey God’s message to me. What hinders me from hearing is my attention to other things. It is not that I don’t want to hear God, but I am not devoted in the right areas of my life. I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions. God may say whatever He wants, but I just don’t hear Him. The attitude of a child of God should always be, "Speak, for Your servant hears." If I have not developed and nurtured this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God’s voice at certain times. At other times I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things— things which I think I must do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Have you heard God’s voice today?

John 15:14 (MSG) - "You are my friends when you do the things I command you."

John 11:41 (NAS) -"So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, 'Father, I thank You that You have heard Me...'"

From My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers


I don't know about everyone else, but I haven't been listening to God as intently as I should. In fact, I've neglected my relationship with Him for things like school, music, and friends. All of these things might be nice, but they won't last forever. What I need is to really get down and just do what I need to do to make things right with God.
But how do I do that? I suppose the first step is to get rid of all the things that distract me. Then what? Well, I'll start eliminating distractions one by one; just taking small steps at first. If I overwhelm myself, I'll just give up. So step one is to listen to less secular music and read my Bible before I do anything in the day.