Then he [Jesus] added, “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.” (Mark 4:24-25)I am really bad at not listening sometimes. We are in the store and I am looking at something. Ella says she is going and will be in the blahblahblah department. I say fine and continue to look. Then I start to go where she is, but where is it? The blahblahblah department is – what? So in pre-cell phone times, I had to go looking for her. Now I have to call her and she will be three aisles over. It is kind of silly.
I didn’t listen.
You tell the kids what you want them to do and they say yes, all if fine. Then it is not done and sometimes that is a very bad thing.
They didn’t listen.
Someone tells you how to get to their house but you don’t really listen. Someone gives you instructions on how to put something together, but – you get the picture.
We are not able to do many times because we didn’t listen. It is not that we are stupid or bad people. It is just that there are a lot of things going on in our minds. We are thinking about other stuff and sometimes it just gets shuffled around and lost.
However, if it is something vital and we know it, we listen intently and follow the instructions to a T. We want to do it right.
Jesus said the same thing: if you listen, you will learn. And the closer you listen, the attention you pay to it all, the more you will learn. If you listen with half an ear, you will be rewarded with minimal information and will not get the job done.
He said that those who listen will have more understanding. And the closer you listen, the more even then that you will understand.
But how do you listen. Jesus is not talking aloud to us as such today. But he does have all his teaching available to us in his word. When we read it and when we think about it and when we dwell on it, it will penetrate into our hearts and we will have more understanding.
And it is more than just reading. It is the meditation, the prayer for understanding, the dwelling upon it. It is not the memorization of the scriptures. That memorization without meditation is worthless. All you have is raw materials. It would be like buying an entire houseful of furniture and not putting it together. All you have is raw materials. You cannot live in it or sit in it or anything. It is nothing but potential.
Listen to him. As Jesus said in another passage:
Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. (Matthew 7:24-27).If you listen to him, he will give you understanding.
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