Today’s Devotional Theme Listen to Me
Daily ScriptureJob 33:33
“Listen to Me! Be silent and I will teach you wisdom.”
Encouragement
Before I came to God, I occasionally taught a workshop on Eastern meditation. As Pastor Ed recently pointed out, the goal of this form of meditation is to get in a quiet place, settle down, and begin to open yourself (your thoughts and emotions) up to anything and everything. Eastern religion – Hinduism in particular – sees the creator as residing in all of creation. After finding God and starting to read the Bible, I frequently came across the word meditation and wondered, “How does Biblical meditation work? Our God is a will-defined, focused if often incomprehensible entity.” On learning more, I’ve come to realize that Biblical meditation in some ways parallels Eastern contemplative techniques. The goal in both is to open up to a higher entity. However, Eastern meditation potentially opens a person up to bad spirits as well as good, unlike focusing on God, Who gives us only good things.
Apply God’s Word
When I was a child, my mother often commanded, “Listen to me!” when she was telling me something. The root meaning of the word translated “listen” in today’s scripture is “become deaf and dumb.” For emphasis, Elihu repeats the command, with a different word, as “Be silent” and you’ll learn something. Elihu is one of Job’s companions, the only one of the four who didn’t unfairly criticize Job. In the vein of offering constructive correction, here he just might be speaking for God. In the same chapter, verses 14-16, his admonition boils down to this: we will hear God speaking if only we will listen. One of my former pastors often said, “God is always talking to us. We just need to learn to listen.” That’s the heart of meditating on God. Listening to God – meditating – is one of the most common themes in the Bible. It’s one we need to take to heart and put into practice in our daily walk.
Come into His Presence
Lord God, please be patient with us. Between our jobs, television and Internet, running our kids to soccer practice, we simply don’t regularly find time to meditate on You. We know we have to make – carve out – time from our rush-about day to hear Your voice and soak in Your wisdom. We know it’s a sacrifice we simply must make – worth far more than all the world’s gold and rubies. Help us to make it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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