Are you listening?

    I have a problem and I am finally willing to admit it. Its a problem that apparently, if not all, men have. No its not the unsightly hair that seems to be growing out of my ears at such a rapid rate. No my problem apparently, at least according to my wife and kids is I don't listen. Although I am not exactly sure about that because I wasn't really paying attention when they told me 😂

    Apparently my wife or my children will tell me something important, like a appointment. They will tell me that on a specific date at a specific time there is something that is needed to be done. Now when that apparent date comes around. I find my self dumbfounded. I am shocked that it is the first time I have ever been told about that appointment. However they swear up and down that they had told me about the said appointment days, weeks even months ago. Now no matter how much they try to convince me of how they have time and time again have relayed this information and repeatedly reminded me of it. I have to be honest I just never heard them say a thing about it. 

    Now I have heard tales of how this is not a problem that is merely limited to me. In fact I have heard several instances of other men experiencing the very same set backs in there listening ability. I have heard countless other wives complaining about their husbands inability to listen to what they have said.

    Truth be told the problem many times is that while I might hear what my family tells me. I am not always listening. I am distracted with something else and my attention is divided. So while I might be informed of some up coming event, I am not listening completely. I miss out on the details because I am not really listening to what I am being told. 

     When it comes to God and his word, I think we can all be guilty from time to time of not really listening. We might read a passage of scripture and for one reason or another, fail to really understand what we have just read. We may listen to a sermon but our mind is off somewhere else. We might hear what God says in his word, but fail to internalize it and apply it to our lives. We can sometimes hear something or read something and instead of thinking what we are hearing is for us, we believe the message is for someone else. 

    This is what many of the disciples choose to do the week prior to the death of Jesus Christ. As we read the gospel accounts chronologically we find that time and again Jesus tried to prepare the disciples for what was about to take place. He warned them of there future short comings. He tried to tell them that He would be betrayed, beaten and die. 

    How did the disciples react to Jesus's warnings and grim predications? They either ignored the warnings all together. Or swear that nothing like what Jesus was saying would come to pass. They said that they would never betray Him. They refused to accept that Jesus would suffer let alone die.

    However as you study the gospel accounts there was one person who took Jesus's warnings seriously. There was one woman to was listening to what Jesus said and internalized it. That woman's name was Mary.  Her story is written in 3 of the 4 gospels and I want to share the account found in Matthew.

Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.- (Mat 26:6-12)

     It is in this passage that we see that Mary had saved this fragrant and expensive oil. For the sole purpose of pouring it all out to anoint Jesus's body. Jesus tells us that she did this for a reason. What was that reason? She did it to anoint Jesus's body for his burial.

    So out of all the disciples that Jesus had. Out of all the disciples who were closest to him. Out of all the warnings Jesus was giving to these disciples, telling them that He was going to die. It was Mary who was listening. It was Mary who acted in faith. It was Mary to trusted that what Jesus said was going to happen was going to Happen. 

     When we talk about God and His word, we need to keep this truth in mind. That truth is that it is not just about what we know. It's not about what we have heard. It not about what we have read. You can read and not really comprehend, You can hear a message but not really listen to what God is telling you. You can know certain truths found in scripture, but not really believe it enough to act on it. 

    It's about really listening to God and His word. Its about putting our full trust and faith in it. It's about believing it so much that you live it out in your life. It's about not being so distracted with what your own plans or ideas that you fail to let the word of God direct you. Its about living out the scriptures in your life.

    We are so often like the disciples were that day. You see there was nothing wrong with their ears that they could not hear what Jesus said. They heard the same things Jesus said that Mary did. They did not receive a different message than Mary received. The diffrence is that Mary took the words Jesus said seriously enough to act upon them. The disciples however did not. They failed to really listen to what Jesus was saying, and because of this they failed to act. 

    We do the same thing. We hear God's word, maybe in a sermon or some devotion. We read something in the word of God that we should do. We know what it says, but we stop short of acting on it. We fail to implement and live out what we have heard or read. We fail to act, because we fail to really listen. We fail to take God and His word seriously. 

    So I ask you what good is it if you know what you read, but you don't actually do it? Did not Jesus tell us "IF YOU LOVE ME KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS". You see our faith is not just what we know. It's what we do. It how we apply the commands of Christ to our lives. It working our our faith in our lives. That is real faith, that is what makes the diffrence. So lets be like Mary, and live out the truths of God's word in our lives.