Apply Duct Tape If Needed

“Wow, whose voice is that? It sounds so eloquent and convincing. This person really has many great strategies and a lot of good ideas. When he speaks it sounds like it is straight from the lips of God’s mouth. Why would he need to listen to anyone for advice or counsel, he seems so wise.” You just listened to the evil side of my conscience voicing his opinion about me. Isn’t he great? I could actually listen to him all day. Smile . . .

“Yes honey, yes dear, I agree whole heartedly with what you said, ‘What did you say?” I am sure none of you have ever been accused of selective listening by your wife? I have never heard of wives getting accused of this, but I have witnessed my wife doing this with me as well.

As most of you know I travel and speak all over the country in many different size churches, many different models of churches, and in many different geographical locations. However, there is one thing I have noticed about most of these churches including newly planted churches. We seem to be enamored with hearing ourselves speak and not listening much to what God has to say during our worship services. Could you imagine attending a worship service where all we did was be quick to listen and slow to speak?

 James 1:19-20 says, "You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires." Do we need to improve our listening skills? It's one of the least-used skills that people seem to practice. How can we learn to identify when we should stop talking and just relax and listen to the person speaking. We should learn how to accomplish this because the Bible also says that we should “be still and know that He is God.” God seems to be saying if we can’t stop talking and start to hear and recognize His voice we won’t even know that He is God.

Communication is made up of talking and listening, listening and talking. It is amazing to me that if I enter a conversation without an agenda or a determination to present my case or get in the last word and just listen how much I tend to learn what God is telling me through someone else. They say you can use duct tape for just about anything. Maybe a strip over God’s vocal cord creation would assist us in achieving our listening goal? I know from experience everyone has a story to tell if we would just listen. Our relationships with others and especially with God would improve drastically if we just applied some duct tape. Perhaps this is another usage for Wikipedia to consider? Do less talking and more listening today!