Are We Hearing the Lord?
By Kelly Balarie
Bible Reading:
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” – Revelation 3:20 NIV
I stood at the school door, shoulders slumped and head peering through the glass doors. I knocked and knocked; no one came. I knocked again. NO one showed up. I knocked louder. No one.
Where were these people? I knew they were in there, but they couldn’t hear me. And herein lay the issue. If they can’t hear, they can’t answer the door.
Maybe they were busy at work, maybe they were caught up in their phone, maybe they were thinking about all they had ahead of them, in their head, that their mind was somewhere else.
The point was – they couldn’t hear.
I can’t judge them. The same thing happens to me when I’m in the car with my kids. I get so deep in thought, I cannot hear. I’m thinking about an issue I need to sort out, or what I will do later that afternoon, or how I am going to respond to an email that came in. I am so deep in thought that I can't even hear my kids call out from the back of the car, “Mommy, mommy…!”
In reality, I don’t hear well because I continually think about all that is unwell or unhandled. In this, I get out of resting with God in the present moment only to hash out some far-off idea that seems achingly important in the here and now. But is it?
I can’t hear God when I’m stunted and regurgitating the agony of worldly woes.
But here I was. In the present moment, standing at my kids’ school door, knocking, physically trying to get someone’s --anyone’s attention -- but no one could hear. Maybe, no one wanted to hear. I don’t know. Sometimes, hearing requires something of us. We have to get up, put down our phone, move our feet, exert our energy and do something. Perhaps, it requires something different than we are used to.
Revelation 3:20 reads, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Rev. 3:20)
Jesus knocks at the door of my heart. Wow. Just like I am tirelessly knocking on the door of this school, Jesus knocks for me to pay attention to Him. Can I hear Him?
Am I paying attention to what He is calling me to pay attention to? Am I making space to hear His heart? Am I clearing away distractions to foster greater attention to what He is aiming to convey? Am I staying in the present to hear rightly how He is calling me to love? Am I waiting on Him and giving Him room to show up in my life?
It is easy to be so distracted or so demotivated that we miss the Lord. Anyone can do that; it is easy in the hustle and bustle of a world moving one-thousand miles an hour. Yet, God is knocking on the door of each of our hearts; He always is. Can we hear Him? Do we settle down enough to hear the heartbeat of His will?
Often, the problem is not that He isn’t moving in our lives; it is that we have let other things speak louder than Him. They always will, too. Unless we decisively say, “No.” No one will speak up for our relationship with Him; we have to be the ones to do that.
Intersecting Faith & Life:
Consider what in your daily life mutes His heart, His Word, and His intent at work in your day. Is it people, problems, distractions, or an inner insecurity? Pray today that you will be a ready and willing listener. Ask God to give you great spiritual understanding so that you will be one that stands at the ready for the wonderous knocking of your Savior.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/Tatiana
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