Why is it so hard to hear the voice of God?
“Yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks.”
Jeremiah 7:26
Can we hear the voice of God?
Not only in our individual lives, but can the church hear the voice of God? Can we hear the whisper of Jesus?
It can be difficult to hear Jesus’ words when our ears are so tuned to our cultural story. When American exceptionalism, and stories of supremacy fill our internal myths, and we become deaf to the words of the Lord. Even when we read the pages of the Bible and look for answers we miss their meaning and it is as if the room is silent.
When we become shaped by fear because commentators have created enemies of other peoples and other neighbors, we can lose our nerve to receive them with open hearts and minds.
When our desires have been given to comfort and ease, and so we have no stomach for challenge or discipline; when we choose to chart our own way and avoid any need for change, we cannot hear our hearts as they yearn for the challenge of living according to the Kingdom of God.
And so God calls, and the words of Jesus ring out, and the Spirit blows through us to entice us to the goodness of God’s love, and we do not hear.
We do not listen and so we cannot heed the words our Lord.
We become like the people Jeremiah is called to speak to; stiff necked, and far from God.
So will we listen? Will we silence the noise so that we can hear, and repent, and give our allegiance to our one true King Jesus?
Our Prayer for Today
To the one who Jesus called Father we pray,
shape us into your children.
Give us ears to hear.
Clear the static in the signal of our culture that keeps us far from you,
and shape us into a kingdom people again.
Amen.