Morning Devotional 061726 Listen With Your Heart

Morning Devotional 061726

Passage selected from today’s Upper Room Verses

1 Peter 4:2-10

⁴ Now you are coming to him as to a living stone. Even though this stone was rejected by humans, from God’s perspective it is chosen, valuable. ⁵ You yourselves are being built like living stones into a spiritual temple. You are being made into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ Thus it is written in scripture, Look! I am laying a cornerstone in Zion, chosen, valuable. The person who believes in him will never be shamed. ⁷ So God honors you who believe. For those who refuse to believe, though, the stone the builders tossed aside has become the capstone. ⁸ This is a stone that makes people stumble and a rock that makes them fall. Because they refuse to believe in the word, they stumble. Indeed, this is the end to which they were appointed. ⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light. ¹⁰ Once you weren’t a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you hadn’t received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 

Good Morning, God chooses us!

Even though this stone was rejected by humans, from God’s perspective it is chosen, valuable. ⁵ You yourselves are being built like living stones into a spiritual temple.

O God, you are my God! And I will ever praise You! You choose us from the rubble that the builder has tossed aside. By Your grace, we are lifted up and given value. For those who refuse to hear, this rubble becomes a stumbling block. 

I see a distinction between listening and hearing. Our ears are constantly receiving sounds that scurry to our brains to be cataloged. Some fall away as “junk” noise or white noise that just fills the empty spaces. People often use white noise to cover up the voices and noises in their heads that make finding peace which leads to rest difficult. 

The problem is that this filler noise can inhibit the brain from processing God’s messages and words to us. Imagine that God is speaking and giving us clear direction for our next step, but it becomes muffled in the chatter. 

I imagine our brains, which, by the way, are amazing, receiving all these impulses of sound, and dutifully organizing them, but what if we have enabled our “do not disturb” setting? Is God’s message sitting there waiting for us to accept it? 

I’m reminded of the flashing light on an old phone or answering machine indicating that you have an incoming message. Unless you choose to receive the message, the light blinks into infinity. 

So, back to my point, our ears are always on. We hear all kinds of noise 24/7, but we must purposely choose to listen. Maybe we must listen with more than our ears. Perhaps we must engage our hearts to truly “hear” God’s incoming message. 

God of Wind and Flame, you bless us abundantly! We are bombarded with noise: music, words, and the hum of life. Sometimes we get tired of the noise, and stop listening. Open our ears through our hearts, so we don’t miss what you are saying. Thank you. We love you. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

Thought for the day: God loves us and thinks we are a delight!

Listen with your heart! Pastor Liz