Our Posture Before the Lord

This morning I am reading from Mark's Gospel, and am focused on a single verse - Mark 9:7 NIV: "Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

As I read this verse, I felt that this charge to listen to Jesus was really important.  I felt like the Lord wanted to address our posture before Him.  So often, my posture is one of telling Him all my issues and what I need Him to do about them.  I am not listening, I am complaining, passionately pleading my cause, telling Him about people who need His help.  I am doing pretty much everything but listening!  Do you have friends who talk so much, you never can get a word in edge-wise?  At times, I find myself as that individual with the Lord, I barely shut my mouth long enough for Him to say something.

Listening to Christ, should be our primary focus, our primary goal.  In prayer, we should spend more time listening then talking.  He is the one who knows us best, everything about us, every thought we have ever had, every thing we have ever done, all things we are concerned with, all that we love.  He knows everything already, so we really don't need to spend lots of time going back over everything to make sure He has understood our concerns fully.  I think He wants to speak, and wants to be heard.  That means we need to listen, and develop our ability to listen.

Yesterday at church, one of our little friends came running alerting us to a situation that was unfolding with one of her siblings.  She is three and she came running repeating the same thing over and over, even though we answered her the first time.  She was so intent on making sure we heard her report, that she never even stopped to hear our response.  Sometimes, I think we are like that with the Lord.  We just keep bringing the same thing to Him over and over, and we never stop and listen.

This morning, I am aware of my need to listen, and hear.  It is not enough to listen, but the Lord is actually expecting us to be hearing and then doing, He calls that obedience.  :-)

He has the best perspective in the world.  He sees and knows everything about everyone, and every situation.  He is never surprised nor caught unprepared.  He has unlimited resources, all authority on Heaven and earth.  Why wouldn't we want to stop and take His advice and guidance to heart?  He loves us, has given His life for us, and is the author of all things good. He is the right guy to listen too.  So let us embrace the Father's direction and posture ourselves to listen to Jesus.