Saturday, March 7, 2009

Day 11: Listen and Obey… (Luke 9:35-36) 07 Mar 09

I consider myself to be a quite a good listener. As a counselor, I listen well; I attend to what is said and what is unsaid of my client. As a pastor, I also listen well; I observe the little things in life and sensitive to the need of my members. As a husband and father, I think I listen relatively well; I know the needs of my wife and the cue of my daughter’s routines. But the question remains: do I obey?

Do I follow through what I have heard? Do I help my client as a counselor to deal with his issue which I hear from the unspoken words? Do I minister to my members as a pastor after knowing the struggles through my observation and God-given sensitivity? Or do I meet the needs of my wife as a husband and response according to my daughter’s routines as a father? And most importantly, as I am trained theologically and able to exegete the Scriptures and give a rather author-intend interpretation of the Scripture; do I do what the Scripture is telling me? Do I obey the word of God which I hear?

Keeping silence is only the beginning of listening to God. Keeping silence about what God has spoken into my life is surely not what God wants. Listen and obey. Keeping silence helps to listen to what God has to say to me, but I need to obey and act upon what God is speaking about my life, then such listening is complete.

This is the beauty of Lectio. It is listening to God through reading His word and it demands us to meditate on what God is speaking to us in particular situation; this is called Meditatio. And knowing what God is saying requires us to pray back to God; this is called Oratio. And Lectio is not complete without a time of Contemplatio; a time to allow the spoken word of God to dwell and soak into our heart and life and response in living it out.

Do you hear what God is saying to you today? Listen and Obey.

HHS…
Abel…

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