A Heart that Hears

This is an article I wrote long ago for a church newsletter in response to a pastor's sermon. The Lord once told Solomon, ""Ask for whatever you want me to give you" (1 Kings 13:5NIV). Solomon responded by asking for a discerning or (KJV) understanding heart to govern God's people. In verse 10, "The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this." His request was granted. He was given a discerning, understanding, even a hearing heart.

I have been unwilling to admit that I have been asking amiss. If God had given me one wish, I would have asked him to place me full-time into the ministry he has called me to. However, I do not have a hearing heart.

I need a hearing heart' one to hear the needs of my wife. I love her dearly for a thousand reasons, but I must say her heart does not become my own. I need a hearing heart; one that hears the cry of my daughter, a need beyond a little girl's words. I need a hearing heart; to hear the inner terror of one with no hope and without God in the world. I need a hearing heart; it cannot be said of me that I never let one of God's words fall to the ground.

A heart that is alive with the breath of God will smell the adrenaline of Satan, feverishly working while it is night. That heart will savor the sweet honey of the Word. That heart will have eyes, the eyes of Christ, stained by tears and great drops of blood. That heart will wince from splinters in the shoulders, and hold the cold hands of the helpless. The merest whisper from heaven will become marching orders.

A hearing heart is a heart willingly broken.

I thank Pastor for the wound of a friend. When he preached on this recently, I numbly heard him. I did not care enough to go to the altar.  Only later did the realization come to me of how unclean and unworthy it feels to not care enough. To not have the heart of God means to have little heart. To that and all other needs there is one sure prayer: "Change me, O Lord."