I love to listen to classical music while I’m working. Bach, Beethoven, Dvořak, and Debussy can all pass through the room, in turn, unseen, without ever invading my conscious space. They don’t need me to respond. Their wordless melodies don’t demand my attention or insist that I sing along. They simply float in the background while my mind focuses on the task at hand.
Occasionally, however, I notice that the music has stopped. I turn from my work to check the streaming site, and I see this question, “Are you still listening?”
I think: “Yes, I am, thank you. I’m enjoying the music immensely, and that is why I’m listening. I enjoy it there, in the background, providing me with soothing comfort and quiet pleasure. I really don’t want to participate or be bothered to give you my feedback.”
However, Pandora doesn’t think like that. It cannot see me, so if it doesn’t sense any physical response from me, it thinks I have walked away. It doesn’t want to play to an empty room or waste its audio resources on nobody. If I’m not there, it won’t play music anymore. Fact is, I may be there listening—I’m just not responding.
I wonder if God notices my lack of response … to Him? We sometimes think that God is like the ultimate, all-powerful computer operating system—constantly running in the background, doing what HE does, directing the heavens and the earth—while we work, and eat, and sleep, and live … IN His Presence. He is GOD—He knows my thoughts before I think them. His voice is everywhere. I hear it in His Word. I hear it in the wind. I sense it when His Spirit whispers to my soul. I do hear it … and I love it. But, I don’t think He really needs me to respond or give Him my verbal feedback … or, do I?
When God speaks, does He expect a response? Does He wait to communicate … with ME? Does He move around me, with purpose, trying to get my attention? Does He stand at my door knocking … lingering, waiting for me to answer? Would God ever want to drop a pop-up on my spiritual screen and ask, “Are you still listening … to ME?”
And then comes the thought: would He ever, eventually, just stop speaking to me due to my lack of response? Like Pandora does? God forbid.
The Lover of my soul doesn’t want to play to an empty heart or to a mind that is forever focused elsewhere. Our God’s desire has always been for community—to COME together in UNITY, in two-way conversation. Like with Moses, face to face. Whether I initiate it in prayer, or He speaks to me in His still, small voice, God desires mutual fellowship with me—“koinonia”—a deep, interactive partnership and intentional, regular communion.
When we read in Genesis 3 that Adam and Eve “heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,” we get the impression that this was their regular daily routine. Adam, with Eve, walking and talking together with the melodious Voice of God—day by day. How long they’d practiced this habit, we don’t know. But, the very day that Adam and Eve decided to walk away and turn their attention—and obedience—to the serpent, the music stopped. God came looking for them with the saddest words ever uttered: “Where ARE you?”
Sometimes, in times of despair and great need, I have cried out to Jesus, “Where ARE You?! God, I’ve prayed, and You don’t answer me! I’ve called Your Name, but You don’t come to my rescue! Are YOU still listening?”
It’s never a matter of God not listening. God is ALWAYS listening. In Psalm 34, David declared: “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.”
“Thus saith the LORD, Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jeremiah 33:3 KJV)
The question is, Am I still listening? Is my ear open to the voice of the LORD? Am I just hearing … or am I also responding to His voice?
The central declaration of faith to all believers in the One True God is what is known as “The Shema.” Its name is derived from the first word of the declaration in Hebrew. Transliterated it is: “Sh’ma Yisra’el, ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad.” In the KJV, it’s: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
Translated as “hear” in this verse, “sh’ma” actually means much more. The word unfolds to mean to: “hear, hearken to, listen to, respond to, yield to, understand, and obey.” More than just an passive acknowledgement of His Presence, it means to actively hear His voice, to diligently listen to His direction, to quickly respond, and to readily obey. This is the true fellowship—“koinonia”—that God desires … with ME. And, if I’ve purposed to listen to God THAT way—to sh’ma—He will know it.
Are YOU still listening?
“For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear (sh’ma) His voice: do not harden your hearts …” (Psalm 95:7-8 NKJ)
Yes, I’m still listening!
“I will listen (sh’ma) to what God the LORD will say …” (Psalm 85:8 BSB) “Speak, for Your servant IS listening (sh’ma).” (1Samuel 3:10 BSB)
