As we all know, any healthy relationship is built around good communication. Good communication results from our desire to carefully listen to people speaking to us, especially our spouses. The marriage relationship greatly suffers when one or both spouses stop listening. The so-called “generation gap” is the result of poor communication. Both sides may talk a lot about their problems, but if neither side listens, effective communication has not taken place.

What about our relationship to God in all of this? Does it not thrive on healthy communication? Do we not grow spiritually when we speak to our heavenly Father in prayer and carefully listen to His will through the pages of His word (Rev. 2:11)?

Regarding our listening capability, one preacher was heard to say, “It’s so hard for us to listen to learn if we haven’t learned to listen.”

God recognizes our difficulty in listening when He encourages us to “be swift to hear” (James 1:19); to “take heed how you hear” (Luke 8:18); and instructs, “He that hath an ear, let him hear” (Rev. 2:7).

After our Lord reminded His disciples of certain men whose “ears are dull (hard) of hearing” (Matt. 13:15), He commended His disciples by saying: “But blessed are…your ears, for they hear” (Matt. 13:16).

[Source: Unknown Author]