Attention!

2 Timothy 2:3-4

Verse 4  No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.

    As we venture into the art of listening we will look at a few different examples of listening and looking at how it applies to us as we abide in Christ.

    First, we will look at the listening a soldier must do.  A part of any branch of the military’s initial training is learning to listen to those in authority.  Not only must a soldier listen to the person over them, they must take what they have heard and obey it.  They also need to see the orders of their military leaders as surpassing anything they learned as a child.  Things like making the bed and being orderly may not be the same as they learned to do them as a child.

    There are strict regulations in the military and a person’s personal desires don’t matter.  We can have all the opinions and desires that we want, but unless they align with the higher-ups they won’t be put into play.  This has to be the way or it would be too chaotic with everyone getting their own way.  There would be no order to conduct military business and the whole safety of the nation would be affected.

    The same issue arises frequently in the Church.  There are too many Christian soldiers who think it is up to them and they don’t listen to the direction given by the head of the army of the Lord.  It doesn’t matter what we think is the best way of doing things or if we don’t like doing it the way that He has said that it should be done.  He is the leader of the army and it is His voice we should be listening to.

    Just as boot camp can aid in learning to pick the important voice out of the mass of voices, we need to be training our ears to pick out God’s voice above all others.  We need to stop thinking that our voice needs to be the most important voice to us.  We are often like the teenagers that first set foot on the military base, used to thinking about what we like and dislike or what our peers think instead of caring what those in authority think is best.  But if we are soldiers in God’s army we need to focus on listening to His voice and obeying it.

Making It Personal

    How quick do you listen and obey God’s voice?  What hinders your listening to His voice?  Do you keep tuning your ears to His voice so that His voice remains the most important?

Making It Personal Kids

    Do you hear mom and dad’s voice more easily than a stranger’s voice?  Why do you recognize their voice first?  Should you be familiar with what God says?

Closing Prayer

    Father, thank You for wanting to teach us.  Help us come to know Your voice better than any other and give us the desire to obey.  In Jesus’ name, amen.