We began the month studying about the circumstances of Samuel's birth. This is a story near and dear to my heart, as Samuel's mother Hannah and I have a lot in common. I've written about this before, so I won't tell that story again.
Our lesson this past Sunday came from chapters 5 and 6. This is the account of the Israelites' defeat by the Philistines. These chapters recount how the Israelites took the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God's presence among them, into battle, treating it much like a good luck charm. The Ark was eventually captured by the Philistines, who suffered some consequences as a result. You can read the entire account there in 1 Samuel.
What sticks with me most about those particular chapters is how the Israelites, God's chosen people, had such a wrong view of God. Over and over, God had instructed them about how He was to be treated. How He was to be revered. How He was to be treated as holy. Yet when they found themselves in a bit of trouble, they treated God more as a good luck charm, sort of like a holy rabbit's foot. They thought that if they could carry the Ark of the Covenant into battle with them, they would surely win the battle! They were, as our pastor often says, treating Him like a "God in a box", rather than worshiping Him and treating Him as holy.
In between those two lessons, we studied about the little boy Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 3 gives us the account of God's call to Samuel. This was one of my favorite Bible stories when I was a little girl. I can still remember sitting in Sunday School, seeing our teacher hold up one of those giant pictures we used to have to accompany our Bible stories. As she held up the picture of the little boy Samuel (or what some artist thought Samuel might have looked like), she told us the story of a little boy who heard a voice calling Him. Samuel thought it was Eli the priest, but Eli knew better.
And so Eli instructed Samuel on how to answer. "Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening." (1 Samuel 3:9 NASB)
That was good advice to Samuel. And it's good advice for us.
What makes a good listener anyway? Think about conversations you regularly have with family or friends or coworkers. Is there anyone among them you would consider a good listener? Why? Likely it is because they actually listen.
How often do we get into conversations, yet not really listen to what the other person is saying? We're too busy in our own heads thinking about what we will say next, as soon as there's an opening in the conversation! You know it's true!
Sadly, that's how we often approach prayer. Prayer is intended to be a conversation with God. In a conversation, there's some talking and some listening. But more often than not, we do all the talking and then we walk away.
A.W. Tozer once wrote, "If you do all the talking when you pray, how will you ever hear God's answers?"
Today might be a good day to start listening. Some wise person once said we have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we talk! Perhaps today we can try that. Instead of making our prayers a list of what we want and who we want it for, talk through the list and then done, we could try to sit quietly and hear what God has to say to us.
Perhaps today is a good day to pray, "Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening."
"Speak to my heart, Lord Jesus;
Speak, that my soul may hear."
(-B.B. McKinney)
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