Preventing Hearing Loss

 
“Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

Luke 7:22


My dad told me growing up that if I kept listening to loud music on my car stereo that one day I’d go deaf. I think those days are fast approaching the older I get. I have discovered that in order for me to hear more clearly, I need to be facing whatever it is that I am attempting to listen. My wife has a habit of talking and walking at the same time. What I mean is, she is constantly moving and doing something so often times she is talking to me as she travels from one room to the next which means as soon as she passes through the doorway into the next room, though her lips are moving I am not hearing a word she says. I have told her if she wants me to understand what she is saying she needs to stop what she is doing and face me so that I can hear what she is wanting to communicate.

Maybe today you feel as if God is in the next room, or you are having difficulty even remembering the last time you heard God’s voice speaking to your heart? If so, I want to encourage you to do the same thing I have learned to do when I can’t hear what my wife is saying or when someone is speaking to me or I am trying to listen to a program on the television or the radio. Turn and face the sound. Try turning in towards God today and seek Him face to face as the Word of God invites us to do. The Bible makes clear that if we will seek God with all of our heart we will find Him when we seek Him with all of our heart. The truth is, God isn’t distant at all from us. Actually, His Word tells us the very opposite. Isaiah 59:1 says loud and clear, “Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.” God does in fact turn His back when we are in sin. Don’t misinterpret the text in Isaiah 59:2. God hasn’t moved at all. When we sin against God and fail to heed His voice, it us we who are moving away from Him, not He from us. In the New Testament the gospel writers make it clear Jesus came to restore hearing to those who were deaf, namely you and me!

From the time God called the nation of Israel to be His own special people by proclaiming, Hear of Israel…” even to today where the Word exhorts you and me with, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 11:15) there is an invitation from God to come to Him and listen to His voice. Don’t miss the chance today to hear God’s Voice. Open up your Bible and don’t just turn the pages, but turn your heart over to Him, look to Jesus and listen to what He says with the desire to do as He instructs you. Invite God to speak to you like little Samuel did when He recognized that God was speaking directly to him, “And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel! Samuel! Then Samuel answered, Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10).  

Take it from the Beloved in the Song of Solomon who in poetic language writes again and again how nothing is more comforting, or delighting than to hear the voice of the one with whom your soul loves. The Shulamite recalls the words of her beloved to her in Song of Songs 2:14 where it says, “O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the secret places of the cliff, Let me see your face, Let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, And your face is lovely."

Yes, beloved of God, spend time with God today, listen too and for His voice. Allow God to speak words of comfort and life as you listen to Him. Turn your face towards God as you seek Him today. Allow His love to lift you up! Listen intently for the voice that says to you…“I love you, I long for you, I am preparing a place for you, I am coming for you, and where I am, you will be also.” They are all there in God’s love letter to you, speaking loud and clear if only you would listen.  

 
“And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!"

Luke 9:35

I LOVE YOU!