“Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live …” (Isaiah 55:3)
There is no substitute for obedience. No amount of religious observances, or professions of faith, will make up for a lack of hearing from God. We live by our reception of every word that comes from God’s mouth. We are His sheep if we hear His voice.
The consequences of not listening to God are severe. We have a way to walk that seems right to us, but it is not God’s way, and it leads to death. He would teach and instruct us in the way we should go; He would provide a way of escape in time of trial and distress, but if we choose to lean to our own understanding and be driven by our own desires and emotions, we will end up reaping what we have sown. We will be sheep that have gone astray following our own way, but even then the good shepherd will seek His lost sheep.
We are often perplexed. We ask ourselves what we should do. But there really is only one thing to do, day by day, at all times – incline our ear to God, and wait for His word to come. The prayer of Saul of Tarsus upon encountering the living Christ on the road to Damascus must be our continual prayer. “Lord, what would you have me to do?”
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Get close enough to Him to hear from Him. He has something to say to each one of us. The problem has not been His ability to speak, but our ability to listen. In many ways, He calls our name to get our attention. Don’t harden your heart. Respond and say, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”