The Shema
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Listen [shema, Hebrew], Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
The biblical word for “listen” means to hear and to obey. Hearing and Obeying are inseparable. You have not listened if you have not obeyed. You have not listened if you have not heard. Biblically speaking, to hear and not to do is not to hear at all.
Listening to the Call of Salvation
When the first disciples heard the call of Jesus to “Come, follow Me,” they also obeyed by dropping their nets immediately. Disciples are “walking listeners.”
• In your experience of salvation, in what ways have you both heard and obeyed the gospel call?
Listening for Spiritual Nourishment
Try to recall the Christian sermons, podcasts, Growth Group lessons, 5×5 devotionals, and radio broadcasts you have heard over the last 10 days.
- What inspiring or challenging truths have you heard?
- Of those truths which ones did you apply to your life in obedience?
- If we listened biblically (hear and obey), how would our spiritual lives be more abundant as well as the lives of those around us?
Parable of the Sower
Read Mark 4:1-9. This parable of the sower is framed by the opening word “listen” and the closing exclamation “let everyone with ears to hear listen!” Some of the seeds of God’s truth fell on the path, the rocky ground, and among the thorns; in each situation the truth did not flourish. Some of the seeds fell on good soil and produced an abundance.
• In what ways could we prepare the soil of our hearts to listen to God by both hearing and obeying?