Today, as throughout history, so many people do not hear God or even want to hear God. I recently asked a retired high school teacher, if she had ever had students in her classrooms, who really weren’t listening. She said: “A lot of them!” Today, so many people are, at best, indifferent to the things of God and the blessed and wonderful life He gives. The tragedy is that so many are our friends and our children! These are people we really care about.

From the Old Testament to the words of Jesus, we learn about the fact that we need to open our eyes, and listen deeply to how God is speaking to us.

Isaiah said: “Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, and the deaf, even though they have ears”. Is. 43:8.

Jesus said: “If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.” Mark 4:23. In fact, there are 66 Bible verses about “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

While people might come to church to hear the Word of God, many are not reading their Bible. Sometimes we think God is silent in our afflictions. But the Spirit of God inspired the writing of the Word of God in the Bible to speak personally to us. It is up to us, to communicate with God in prayer to become deeply connected to God. In our moments of intimacy with God through prayer, the Holy Spirit helps us as God’s wisdom and love moves in the deepest parts of our hearts.

Our desire to hear the Word of God is to know Scripture and to also know how Scripture intersects our lives. So reading the Word of God requires an open, reflective listening posture to truly hear how God is addressing our personal life of faith in love. That is how God reveals how He is addressing our deepest needs and hurts.

When we learn to love Scripture, we learn to love God. King David loved Scripture. He wrote that he meditated on it all day long. He wrote the words were sweet to his taste. He also wrote that God’s statutes were his heritage forever and the joy of his heart. Ps.119:36, 97,103, 111. Is that the way you feel about scripture? If not, start reading the Bible every day and read the entire Bible once a year. It takes about 20 minutes a day.

Your heart will grow deeper and deeper into the love of God and in the love of people. You will deeply realize that you are part of something far greater than you ever imagined. You will start looking at people and realize that you know about the key to a wonderful life, and you will want to share it to help others. That secret is the love of God and Word of God. When you share that with another person, that is when Christ is working through you.

Dr. Roger Holl is pastor of Sterling Grace Community Church. The church meets at the Sterling Senior Center Sundays at 10:30 a.m. All ages are welcome. For further information, call 907-862-0336.