I doubt that any question is more common in most households than, “Did you hear me?” I recall hearing this question when I was small and thinking, “Yes, I hear you.” How could I avoid hearing whoever it was? They were no more than twelve inches away and not exactly whispering.
As parents, we frequently ask this of our children usually when we mean do you understand me. As adults, we ask each other this question for two reasons. The first reason we ask this question to be sure that the person understands us. The second reason is to make sure the other person is engaged in active listening. It is unbelievable, but I have occasionally received complaints about not listening to my wife.
When I was a child, I would, at times, get lost in a book. What I was reading would become my world, and I would see and hear nothing except what I was reading. More than once, I got into trouble for not responding when called. I was busy listening to all the sounds my imagination was hearing in the book. The activity in my imagination prevented me from hearing my parents at all.
Most of the time, when we fail to hear it is because we are distracted. We tend to become distracted by anything we consider to be more exciting or more important. Unfortunately, in times of crisis, our priority list tends to get out of order, and we focus on minor issues while trying to handle major ones. Often we disengage because we are thinking about our next response. Our focus is wrong because we have stopped listening.
I have noticed that to understand everything said to me, I have to focus on the speaker. Focusing means stopping what I am doing and listening.
I was working in my furniture repair shop one day and had my youngest daughter with me. She was talking a lot, as four-year-old girls will do, and I remained focused on a project. She was asking questions about all kinds of things, and I was trying to answer while only half-listening. I answered many of her inquiries with “Uh-huh,” or “What did you say?” Then one question stood out.
“Daddy, why does Pepper (our dog) have paws?”
How do you answer that?
I replied, “I don’t know. You will have to ask God.”
Soon from the other side of the shop, I heard her inquiring, “So God, why does Pepper have paws?”
I realized that she was listening to what I said. She was sincerely inquiring. She was not just talking to hear herself.
Often we listen to God the way I was listening to my daughter that day. We tend to believe that communication with God is telling Him what we want and God raining blessings back down on us. We fail to understand that to live in God’s Shadow requires us to have a healthy relationship with God. A strong relationship requires listening as well as speaking. There have been times that I have been praying, well really fretting, to God about some problem and have felt Him tell me to be quiet and listen.
I am comforted as I read scripture to recognize that God never listens to our prayers in a distracted manner. When we fail to get an instant answer, we think that God is not attentive to us. If we do not like the answer, we may believe that God did not hear us. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Bible contains a story about a man named Elijah. Elijah was a prophet of God. Because the nation of Israel had stopped listening to God, they had suffered a three and a half year drought. This drought was brought to an end when Elijah defeated the idol-worshiping prophets and prayed to God. (You can read the story in 1 Kings 17-19) Rain came in abundance. The queen of the land threatened to kill Elijah. He then fled into the desert. He eventually found refuge in a cave. While Elijah was hiding in the cave, God demonstrated His power. God sent a wind, an earthquake, and a fire across the land surrounding the cave. An intense silence then filled the area, and Elijah heard God’s voice, asking why he was in the cave. God then gave Elijah instruction concerning what he was to do next and offered some encouragement.
“Did you hear me?” is a question that God could ask us. We know that Jesus taught that the most important commandment is to love God with your entire being. (Matthew 22:36-40) Failing to follow this teaching is failing to listen to God.
Sometimes we encounter problems, and it seems that God is very distant or not listening to us. At those times, it is good to stop and consider if we have been listening to God. It is impossible to live in God’s shadow if we do not listen. It is easy to read scripture on autopilot. We read the words but do not take the time to understand their meaning.
I used to bake most of the bread for my family. I had specific recipes I followed, and I learned to make some delicious bread. Each aspect of the bread recipe required strict adherence. If I said, “Well, it takes some ingredients, so anything in the pantry will do.” The bread would not have turned out. If I had all the right ingredients but failed to allow it to rise or baked it at the wrong temperature, I would fail. If I had everything else right but baked it for the incorrect amount of time, the bread baking attempt would have been a disaster. Success came from listening to and following the instructions in the recipe.
To successfully live in God’s shadow, we must be listening to scripture. We must follow the recipe laid out in the teachings of Jesus. Living in God’s shadow requires us to listen to His commands.