Hearing vs. Listening

Throughout the pages of Scripture, there’s a word that gets repeated:
“hear,” or a related word, “listen.” In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word “Shema” translates into English as “hear” or “listen” and is often used to emphasize the act of listening, understanding, and obeying.

Today’s culture places value on doing many things at once; we often try to listen while focusing on other tasks, which divides our focus. The sound of someone’s voice might come into our ears, but if we’re also scrolling social media, doing schoolwork, or making a meal, we might not fully understand their words.

But in the biblical context, “hearing” does not simply include sound reception; it also involves active obedience and an effort to understand.
In Mark 4:9, Jesus invites us to listen—to hear and obey, encouraging us to pay careful attention to His words: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jesus isn’t just asking us to audibly hear His words and carry on with our personal agenda; He’s urging us to actively listen and obey, to live by His truth. Listening and obeying are what build our faith in Jesus Christ. Hearing the Word of God should lead to a transformed life marked by fruitfulness.
As you reflect on the idea of listening in Scripture, consider your heart and spiritual receptivity. Are you attentive to God’s Word, allowing it to transform your life, or is your hearing divided, causing you to resist His call?

What I Think

My focus word for this year is “listen” so how appropriate that today’s scripture verse and teaching is about listening actively, a skill that I am working on since that is something God told me I need to cultivate. I am one of those multi-taskers. I scroll through my phone, straighten up something around the house, have the TV on in the background, and all the while my husband is talking to me. I must confess that a lot of what he says is repetitive since he is at the age that he cannot remember saying things previously. But that is no excuse not to give him my full, undivided attention. I used to (before I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to make “listen” my focus word for the year) play games on my phone as we went on errands together, or even long trips. I realized when I was the driver for my husband after his surgeries how lonely it must have been for him for me to always be occupied while he was busy keeping us safe as he drove. You see, after his surgery, he slept, and I had no one to talk to. So, that was the beginning of being prompted to be an active listener, not just of my husband but of everyone.

I also noticed that since I am a Type A personality and have difficulty sometimes with my words (since my stroke), I am often forming a response in my mind while someone is speaking. The Holy Spirit admonished me, reminding me that He will help me speak when it is time, but my job when someone else is talking is to listen attentively and trying to understand what they are really saying, not just their words but their hearts behind the words.

I am discovering that listening is not always automatic or easy. Most of the time, at least for me, I have to discipline myself to focus. One of the things that has helped me is imagining that it is Jesus talking to me. Would I tune Him out, be disrespectful to Him? I hope not…nor should I be so to others. I never know when God might have a message for me in the words that someone else is speaking.

The Scripture today says that “He who has ears, let him hear.” We all have ears, and unless you have a hearing impairment, you can hear. But hearing the words or the sounds of the words isn’t enough. We have to really listen, strive to understand and if the word is from the Lord, to follow through with obedience. I know that I feel better about myself and the other person when I am really listening and responding appropriately to them. God listens to us, and I am sure at some times, He would prefer to tune out our whining, complaining and constant requests. But He never does…He models listening for us. He is always there, always ready to answer and He always understands our needs, our frustrations and our basic weaknesses of just being human. Can we not extend that same grace to the people all around us?

Listening is a skill, but it is also a privilege. Think, if you can, of someone you know with a hearing disability. What they would give for the gift of being able to hear clearly! We have that ability and misuse it or ignore it, in favor of our own selfish desires and needs. I am so thankful that God is leading me this year on a journey of self-discovery as well as finding out about others by really listening to them.

How about you? Do you really listen or are you preoccupied and multi-tasking? Hear…really listen…and then your actions will make more sense to you and to the other people with whom you are interacting.