You Who Fear God, Listen!

You Who Fear God, Listen!

“Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, ‘Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.’” Acts 13:16. Paul then went on to speak to them about how God chose His people, led them out of Egypt with an uplifted arm, and how He put up with their ways in the wilderness. Then he spoke about how nations were destroyed by God’s hand, and how He appointed judges, then prophets, and when the people demanded it, He gave them kings. God did all this to help His people obey His commandments; He had thoughts of peace toward them. Without exception, God blessed them when they listened to His words and carried out His will. They crushed the kings and drove out nations at God’s command. And through obedience to the law, they became invincible.

But throughout history we see that the difficulty lay in listening to God’s commands and obeying them. They would hold out for a time, and then they turned aside to dumb idols; they would not bow their necks, and God’s blessing departed from them, and defeats came one after another.

All this has been written for our instruction. It’s easy to think how incredibly foolish they were not to listen. That’s true enough, but then what about me! Do I listen, or do I immediately forget how I looked in the mirror of the word? And I even have a much higher calling: divine nature!

It takes a lot to get a person to listen. We are so full of ourselves and our own thoughts. We may sit under powerful preaching, but am I listening with the ears of my heart? Do I hear as a disciple hears? Do I listen to the voice that speaks to me about myself? What do I give my ear to? There is so much that would draw us away from the very heart of the matter, the very core of the gospel.

In Isa. 55:3, He says: “Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you—the sure mercies of David.”

I must incline my ear, I must turn my ear to Him; this is a conscious act. I must humble myself and be poor in spirit so that I can hear what He has to tell me. I have sin, and I must be on guard against that for as long as I live. If I forget this in my service for God, then I also will have left my first love for Christ. It is my actions that show whether I am listening. What is happening in my heart, am I cleansing myself?

How can I learn to do His will without listening to what His will is, and how can the word be mixed with faith in my heart if I don’t listen?

We live in the time when He speaks to us through His Son, and everything is naked and open before His eyes. Heb. 4:13. He works with great precision to give us the situations we need so that we can be formed into the part of the building He wants to use us for. When the time comes for the building to be fitted together, it will be done without the sound of hammers or chisels. As His will has been done in heaven, so it will be done on earth, in my life and yours.

Let us wholeheartedly take to heart what God said in Mark 9:7. “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” Then, and only then, will we have an eternal future together with those who, throughout their lives, inclined their ear to hear Him and, through obedience to the Master’s words, kept a listening ear!