Listening Well

I would love to share with you this daily devotional from Alan Falding’s gook: “A Year of Slowing Down: Daily Devotions for Unhurried Living”. I’ve been. using this devotional over the past few months and it was really ministered to me, I trust that you find this helpful in your own walk with God.

The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue,

to know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning …

to listen like one being instructed. (Isaiah 50:4)

This line of Scripture has been part of my personal prayers for a very long time. Something in the spirit of it inspires and guides me as a teacher and preacher.

How do we grow in our ability to share good words well with others? How could we acquire what Isaiah calls “a well-instructed tongue”? How can we come to know how to speak to those who are exhausted in a way that refreshes and sustains them?

Isaiah suggests that this is a gift God gives. God has given him a well-instructed tongue. And the way God does this is by teaching Isaiah how to listen. Morning after morning, Isaiah is awakened by God to listen well. But he isn’t invited to listen like one getting ready to teach. He is awakened to listen like a student - an apprentice.

There is a difference between listening, like one getting ready to teach and one open to being taught. I can listen like someone trying to prove my own opinions and perspectives, or I can listen like one willing to be enlightened and redirected. The best teachers are those who live in a lifelong posture of learning.

We learn how to speak words that help and bless others by learning to listen to the words of grace God speaks to us in our own need. Then we speak words of grace that have been tested in our experience rather than speaking words of theoretical grace.

In what ways do you listen like one seeking to prove your current opinion? In what ways do you listen like one willing to be taught?

To check out Alan’s devotional go to: https://amzn.to/47l8G9M

To learn more about Alan Flading and is other books around Unhurried Living go to: https://www.unhurriedliving.com/

Finally, would love to hear your thoughts on this devotional. What really struck me was am I listening to God for his instruction? For him to teach me? Or am I listening to him to prove my own point?

Would love to hear what God speaks to you about through reading this.