Commit to Listening and Making a Decision
As we look to CHG #8, which tells us to commit to listening and make a decision, what does this guideline imply as being the root cause of my clutter?
♥ My clutter builds up when I do not commit.
♥ My clutter builds up when I do not listen.
♥ My clutter builds up when I do not make a decision.
Therefore, when I commit, listen, and make decisions, I lessen my clutter and this brings healing to me.
The Scripture to support CHG #8 is from Mark 4:3-9, “ ‘Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed…some seed fell on a footpath…on shallow soil…among thorns…on fertile soil…Anyone who is willing to hear, should listen and understand.’ ”
If you go to your Bible, you can read these Scriptures in their entirety. In Mark 4, Jesus is teaching through one of His many parables. This time the parable is not about fishing as we saw with CHG #7. Instead, it is about planting or sowing seeds while taking into account the type of soil that our seed can fall on. The parable is used as an analogy to our listening skills, and especially to God’s Word. When seed gets scattered over open land or when sound travels through our field of hearing, the seed or sound can fall onto four types of soil:
♥smoothed out paths
This is where the seed gets eaten by the birds. There is no soil for growth. Our hearing can be that way too, what we hear in one ear, goes out the other, and there are times when we do this with each other and with God.
♥rough and rocky terrain
On rocky soil, there is very little earth for something to take root, there is no depth for growing what is sewn. When it comes to our selective hearing, we can take in what someone says or what God’s Word tells us for a little while, but it can quickly be forgotten or disregarded. It gets scorched out and dies.
♥weedy thorny overgrowth
Weeds and thorns can choke out what gets planted. Biblically speaking, it’s the light of God’s Word that we hear, but it gets choked out by the darkness that we are so accustomed to, and therefore, no crop is produced.
♥fertilely enriched
This is the ground that is READY to receive what gets planted, and it results in a harvest that is beyond one’s expectation. Because of our readiness to hear, listen, and understand, we bear much fruit as we accept and soak in the Word of God and learn to respect our communication with others.
What do you think Mark 4:3-9 implies as being the root cause of why our clutter can occur?
♥ My clutter builds up when I do not listen. Jesus emphasizes this need to listen both at the beginning of these verses and at their ending.
♥ My clutter builds up when I do not plant my seeds on fertile ground.
♥ My clutter builds up when I am not willing to hear.
♥ My clutter builds up when I do not understand.
Therefore, when I listen to the Word of God and value others by listening to what they have to say, I produce the fertile ground that helps me to receive what I hear with open ears and to pursue the desire to understand. This lessens my clutter and brings healing to me and to others.
Your SW this coming week is about lessening your relational clutter by paying more attention to how you listen, or do not listen, to others or to God’s leading and teaching. The dictionary, next to the Bible, is my favorite reference book. I find that just one word in a definition can give me a fresh new meaning and slant to words that are already very familiar to me. Here are some of the words related to this week’s CHG that you might want to look up. Check them out! See how one new word to define the following words can give you a fresh new approach to how you listen and make decisions:
♥Commit
♥Listening
♥Decision
♥Planting
♥Fertile
♥Hear
♥Understanding
Father God, please help me to take this CHG to heart by being honest about me. It’s hard to admit, but I know there are times when I am in too much of a hurry to listen, or I do not respect what I hear You or others telling me. I can find myself in a race to speak what I have to say because I think it is so important, valuable, and wise! Consequently, it causes me to only half listen, if at all, to the words of You or another.
Please forgive me for thinking that what I have to say is far more important than being silent and giving my full attention to listening to You or someone else. Help me to recognize that my decision to listen is a demonstration of my love for You and others.
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