It feels we live at a time when everyone is talking, and no one is listening.

Do you, like me, struggle with listening well? Whether it is because of laziness, selfishness, busyness, or whatever, so often I just don’t get it right. I want to move past what Paul Tournier called “dialogues of the deaf.”

In our troubled times, we must learn to listen well because the Bible says:

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

This is Part 1 of a three-part series that hopefully will help us gain some skill in Listening Well.

Part 1: The God Who Listens
Part 2: The Importance of Listening to Others
Part 3: Listening that Makes a Difference

God, the Great Listener

Our God is a God who speaks. But He also listens.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes,

God’s love for us is shown by the fact that God not only gives us God’s word but also lends us God’s ear…Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by him who is himself the great listener and whose work they should share.

Yahweh Listens

Yahweh, the LORD, is a listening God. He heard the cry of Abel’s blood from the ground after he was slain by his brother Cain. He hears the prayers of childless and abandoned women. The LORD hears the cries of the oppressed voiced through the psalmists and prophets as they call out for justice, righteousness, truth, mercy, and deliverance.

I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.

The Messiah Listens

Jesus, the deliverer, was a listening Messiah. He heard the cries of those on the margins of society; the lepers, the blind, the sick, and the crippled. He heard the struggle of a sinful woman beside a well (John 4). He listened to the pain and confusion of two distraught disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 23:13-15).

Jesus, gave us the example of listening to the Father when He said,

For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

The Danger of Not Hearing

The deliverance of the Hebrew people from the slavery of Egypt did not begin with the Passover, the plagues, or even when Moses entered the halls of Pharaoh and declared, “Let my people go!” It did not even begin when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush. It started with God hearing the cries of His people.

During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

Some have called the story of the exodus the duel between two kings. On one side, Yahweh, the King of the Universe, and on the other Pharaoh, the king of the Egyptians. There is a warning in the contrast between these two kings. The king of the Egyptians did not hear the cries of the oppressed, the voice of God spoken through Moses and Aaron, nor even the cries of his own people as they suffered during the plagues.

Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

Pharaoh lost the battle. We must not ignore the consequences of not hearing.

Growing in the Image of the Listening God

Listening is an activity of our Heavenly Father in which we get to participate. Missional Christ-followers have the opportunity to reflect the image of the listing God. We live in the likeness of the Great Listener when we listen well.

Will we be like our listening God and “turn our ear” to others and hear their cry?