Devotionals

Listeners with No Ears

by Anne Adams
02/08/23
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Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 13:9 (KJV)

As Pastor Mike entered the pulpit before the sermon, he noticed Miss Henry sitting in the third row. Not unusual, he thought, since she was somewhat deaf and in that position she could better hear the sermon. Or, he thought, hear something she could ponder, censure and then spread around.

As he began to preach, Mike noticed that Miss Henry had extracted something small from her purse which she inserted in her ear. Probably her hearing aid, he thought as he continued speaking then. Then after a few moments he noticed that she was wearing a scowl which after a moment became a grimace.

Then as he continued to speak she suddenly reached up to snatch the hearing aid from her ear, stuff it back in her purse and sit stiffly upright. Amusing, Mike thought as he realized the reason for her action. His topic was avoiding judgmental gossip and since that was her special talent Miss Henry obviously didn’t like what she was hearing!

In our passage Jesus asked that his listeners open their ears to his message, and unfortunately that’s something we often fail to do. Especially when it’s not what we want to hear.

So what is we don’t want to hear? Perhaps God is nudging us into a new area of service, or maybe he’s correcting us for a fault or asking that we change our mind about a task. But whatever it is, when we don’t listen then we may become stalled on our spiritual journey.                                           

So when that happens then you might say we’re a listener with no ears.

So what to do? Try this – the next time you get a divine nudge listen and listen carefully – and follow through on it. For your benefit and his glory.