Listening, Part 3

I still want to pursue the subject of listening. In this and the following meditations I will be expanding on the thoughts I have already set forth. Let is be stressed again that listening requires the power of concentration. Concentration is the key to information being encoded in our memory. So this meditation on listening has become a study on the power of concentration. Let’s begin by defining the word concentrate.

Concentrate – To bring to or towards a common centre; to collect or gather as at a centre; to cause to converge or meet at one point or place.

When we concentrate with our minds we cause our thoughts to focus on one thing. If we are concentrating when we pray to God, read the Bible, or listen to a sermon, we are focusing our mind on that activity alone and we are not allowing our thoughts to wander from it. If we are going to prevent our minds from wandering, we have to be aware of when our minds wander. When this happens, we must catch ourselves and direct our thoughts back to the task at hand. This brings us back to what we have already seen in the previous meditations, and that is the fact the listening requires earnest and constant effort on our part to concentrate on what we are hearing. The Bible calls it hearkening diligently. Like anything else, the skill of listening will improve with practice. You have to make an effort to listen and you have to keep making an effort to listen. The more you do this, the better at it you will become. And do not forget that God holds you responsible to listen to Him. It is to your peril if you fail to do so. So you had best pay attention to what I am telling you!

Now I would like to call in some information I found on the internet in an excellent article entitled The Self-Mastery. Self-Direction Power of Concentration put out by Globusz Publishing. In the following quote, the author is pointing out the need to make an effort to improve concentration, which is what I have been harping on.

Concentration of the mind can only be developed by watching yourself closely. All kinds of development commence with close attention. You should regulate your every thought and feeling. When you commence to watch yourself and your own acts and also the acts of other people, you use the faculties of autonomy (self-government), and, as you continue to do so, you improve your faculties, until in time you can engineer your every thought, wish and plan. To be able to focalize the mind on the object at hand in a conscious manner leads to concentration. Only the trained mind can focalize. To hold a thought before it until all the faculties shall have had time to consider that thought is concentration.

I am particularly struck by that sentence that I have highlighted. In order to develop anything in your life, whether it be listening skills, a professional skill, learning a subject, getting in shape, or pursuing a relationship, you have to pay close attention to it. So if you find yourself having a problem concentrating, you need to begin watching yourself closely, paying attention to your concentration or lack thereof. The correction of any problem begins with awareness of the problem. Strangely enough, in order to improve the power of concentration, you have to concentrate on concentrating!

Now let’s bring in what the Scripture says about this.

Proverbs 4:25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

This passage is clearly teaching us to consider our direction, settle on a course of action, set it before us, and focus directly on it without being turned aside from it to the right hand or to the left. This is clearly a call to develop the power of concentration.

Here is another interesting quote from the above-mentioned article.

When the self-regulating faculties are not developed the impulses, appetites, emotions and passions have full swing to do as they please and the mind becomes impulsive, restless, emotional and irregular in its action. This is what makes mental concentration poor.
When the self-guiding faculties are weak in development, the person always lacks the power of mental concentration. Therefore you cannot learn to concentrate until you develop those very powers that qualify you to be able to concentrate. So if you cannot concentrate one of the following is the cause:
1. "Deficiency of the motor centers." 2. "An impulsive and emotional mind." 3. "An untrained mind."
The last fault can soon be removed by systematic practice. It is easiest to correct.
The impulsive and emotional state of mind can best be corrected by restraining anger, passion and excitement, hatred, strong impulses, intense emotions, fretfulness, etc. It is impossible to concentrate when you are in any of these excited states.

Note those three things that will interfere with concentration. The deficiency of motor centers refers to some kind of mental handicap that hinders one’s ability to concentrate. This is something that most of us do not have, at least not that we know of. Assuming that is not the problem, we may consider the other two. We have already addressed the interference of an untrained mind. That, as he rightly observes, can be corrected by practice. His advice on correcting an impulsive and emotional mind is right on target. He is simply recommending the Scriptural practice of temperance. Temperance is defined as the practice or habit of restraining oneself in provocation, passion, desire, etc.; rational self-restraint. This is one of the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 and something we are taught to add to our faith in 2 Peter 1:5-8, if we would “neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We must restrain our passions, our emotions, and our impulses if we would improve our ability to concentrate. For example, when you are reading your Bible, you may feel as strong impulse to call someone on the telephone. Or you may be feeling very angry about something that happened. Or you may be worried about how you are going to pay the bills. All of these things are interfering with your ability to concentrate on your reading. Learn to recognize when your mind is wandering onto these other things. Catch yourself and call your thoughts back to the task at hand. All those other things will be there to attend to when you are done with your reading. And, of course, as Christians we have the privilege of casting our cares upon God so as to free up our minds to concentrate. So a simple prayer of commitment of our cares to God can help to bring us back into focus.

Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

A mind at peace will be much more disposed to concentration than a mind that is anxious and agitated. And the ability to concentrate will make you a better listener, which is the purpose of these meditations. That is enough for today. Now see if you can concentrate on this information I have given you.

Listening, Part 2

I wish to continue with the subject of listening, that I began in last week’s meditation. Remember that God holds you responsible to listen to what He has to say. He commands you to hearken diligently, which involves hearing with an earnest and constant effort to concentrate upon what you are hearing. This is what Pastor Larry Lilly calls “energetic listening.” It takes effort and thus energy to listen. Now consider the definition of listen.

Listen – To hear attentively; to give ear to; to pay attention to (a person speaking or what is said).

Please note that listening involves paying attention to what is said. Again, it involves the power of concentration. And this is most especially important when it comes to listening to God. A main reason we go to church is to hear what God has to say. So this subject very much applies to our responsibility as church members sitting under the sound of the pastor that the Holy Ghost has set over us to teach us God’s word.

Some of the information surrounding this subject of listening will hearken back to the meditations I did on memory. You may recall that at the end of those mediations I recommended an article entitled: Improving Your Memory: Tips and Techniques for Memory Enhancement. This article can be found by going to www.helpguide.org and typing in the title. Our brother Greg Ohly obviously read this article because he was using some of those techniques to help him remember the names of his twin granddaughters, as he related to us last Sunday. Greg apparently took to heart my comments about memory. Thank you, Greg. This article had this to say about listening and concentration:

New information enters your brain along pathways between neurons in the appropriate area of the brain. The key to encoding information into your memory is concentration; unless you focus on information intently, it goes “in one ear and out the other.” This is why teachers are always nagging students to pay attention! If you’ve concentrated well enough to encode new information in your brain, the hippocampus sends a signal to store the information as long-term memory.

The hippocampus is the structure in your brain that plays a major role in processing information as memory. If you want to retain what you hear, you need to hear it with concentration; you need to listen. Now as for your responsibility to listen to the preaching of God’s word in church, let me make a few suggestions.

First of all, pray to God to help you to listen, to focus your attention upon His word. Consider this prayer for focused attention and the removal of distractions:

Psalms 119:36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.
37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken (energize) thou me in thy way.

Secondly, make an earnest effort pay attention. In other words, hearken diligently. Quoting again from the article Improving your Memory:

You can’t remember something if you never learned it, and you can’t learn something — that is, encode it into your brain — if you don’t pay enough attention to it. It takes about eight seconds of intent focus to process a piece of information through your hippocampus and into the appropriate memory center. So, no multitasking when you need to concentrate! If you distract easily, try to receive information in a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted.

Now let’s see how the Scripture puts it.

Proverbs 2:2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

Inclining the ear and applying the heart is making an effort to pay attention.

Thirdly, eliminate care from your life so as to reduce stress. Stress reduces your ability to concentrate. Stress produces the hormone cortisol, which can damage the hippocampus thus hindering your ability to store information in your brains. It is difficult to concentrate and thus to hearken diligently if you are nervous, anxious, and agitated. When your mind is all keyed up, it tends to jump all over the place. It is very frustrating to communicate with someone like that because you can tell they are not tuned into what you are trying to say to them. Okay, I know some of you have had that problem with me. So I am preaching to myself as well. We need to learn to quiet ourselves so as to be able to listen. And a good way to quiet ourselves is to reduce the amount of care that is stressing us. Are you hearing the echoes of a recent sermon I preached entitled On Being Without Carefulness?

Fourthly, get adequate sleep. When you are exhausted from lack of sleep your ability to concentrate is severely impaired. It is hard to listen while struggling to stay awake. Or have you noticed this? I have actually had people tell me they enjoyed a sermon, when I caught them sleeping during it. Go figure! And, of course, good nutrition and exercise improve your overall health including your mental health and with that your ability to concentrate.

Before you come to church, I would advise you to have some quiet time to pray and get your mind in frame to hear the word of God. You can do this on Saturday evening or Sunday morning. Give yourself plenty of time to commute to church so that you are not under the stress of rushing to make it before the bell rings. Remember, stress will interfere with your ability to concentrate. Have a quiet, relaxing drive to church. Connect with the family. Leave the cell phone at home, or if you just can’t be parted from it, at least do not talk on it or turn it on. Minimize your distractions. You are coming to hear from heaven. Get tuned in!

And don’t forget that the quality of your life depends upon whether you listen or not. I shall have more to say about listening next time, God willing.

Listening, Part 1

At the last conference I attended in Indiana, I became better acquainted with a minister that I met there before. He is Pastor Larry Lilly. I now regularly receive a devotional he sends out entitled Larry Lilly’s Letter. Here is a quote from his letter of 8April 2008 that struck me. It deals with the subject of listening.

Proverbs 1:5, "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:" Basically the proverb means that wise people increase their wisdom through energized listening. Far too many people appear to be listening but in fact their mind is wandering off to some experience past or desired, they are fondly walking down some memory lane and fail to grasp a mere modicum of what the speaker is saying, let alone grasp any meaning. To be sure the speaker has a responsibility to arrest attention, but only the very best speakers and teachers managed to do this consistently, so the burden for increased knowledge, or wisdom falls to the listener, for even boring speakers often say profound things. Certainly we have listened to tremendously exciting speakers who upon examination have said nothing, but they did say it eloquently.

I can certainly relate to what Pastor Lilly is saying. I have heard men with poor speaking skills set forth very informative subject matter. Even our beloved apostle Paul was “rude in speech, yet not in knowledge” (2 Corinthians 11:6). On the other hand, I have heard men who were lively, witty, eloquent speakers that taught me nothing. Their speeches were only so much fluff. I once knew a Primitive Baptist deacon that had this to say about these kinds of speakers: “They have diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the thought.”

I was struck with Pastor Lilly’s point that “the burden for increased knowledge, or wisdom falls to the listener.” That is so true! While a speaker should strive to make his presentation as interesting and arresting as he can, it is ultimately up to you to make the effort to listen.

Now “what saith the Scripture” with respect to this subject? God does indeed hold you responsible to be energetic listeners, as Brother Lilly put it. Consider these verses:

Deuteronomy 28:1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Isaiah 55:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

You are commanded to hearken diligently. Doing so will bring rich blessings into your life. It should be obvious from these verses that listening has a great deal to do with the quality of your life. Now true to form, let’s define what it means to hearken diligently.

Hearken – To apply the ears to hear; to listen, give ear. To apply the mind to what is said; to attend, have regard; to listen with sympathy or docility (readiness to receive instruction).

Diligently – With constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken; persistent application and endeavour.

To hearken is to listen. But this involves more than just letting sounds come into your ears. Hearkening also involves applying your mind to what you hear. It involves the power of concentration. To hearken diligently is to listen with constant and earnest effort. You have to make a serious effort to listen with concentration upon what you hear, and that constantly. Otherwise, your mind will wander and you will miss what God holds you responsible to hear. And the failure to listen will bring judgment upon you as these verses plainly declare:

Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

Deuteronomy 28:15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

This subject matter is expanding in my mind. I shall have more to say about it in another meditation, God willing. The thing I want to impress upon you today is that God commands you to listen with concentration to what He has to say. When a man is speaking to you on behalf of God, you had better listen, even if His speaking skills may not be the best. It is your responsibility to listen. The quality of your life depends upon whether you do so or not.

How Do We Experience God?

I have an overriding thought that I wish to drive home to you in today’s meditation. That thought is found in the following passages:

Leviticus 26:3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

14 ¶But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;

15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:

16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.

23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;

24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

2 Samuel 22:26 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright.

27 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury.

2 Chronicles 15:2 And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.

Colossians 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

Now don’t just rush through the reading of those verses. Think about what they are saying to you. They are setting forth a principle of God’s divine government that applies in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. That principle is the overriding thought I want to drive home to you. And that principle is that we determine by our behaviour how we experience God! If we walk in His commandments, He will walk with us, He will deal with us mercifully, He will be found of us, and He will reward us. But if we walk contrary to Him, He will walk contrary to us, He will forsake us, He will requite us our wrong, and we will find God very unpleasant (unsavoury) to deal with. Observe that whether we are upright in our behaviour or whether we are froward (perverse, ungovernable) in our behaviour, we do not escape having to deal with God.

It should be obvious that how we experience God will determine the quality of our lives in this world. Now this principle may not seem to apply in some cases as there are those who rebel against God and prosper in this world. Let these verses tell us about these people.

Psalms 73:12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

Hebrews 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Again, as God’s children we determine how we will experience God. And it does not matter who you are, what your position is, nor how many past blessings you have enjoyed. In this matter of the divine government, “there is no respect of persons.” Be warned. You shall experience God! There is no getting around that fact. The question is: how will you experience Him?

Remember that we will observe the Lord’s Supper again this Sunday, God willing. How will you experience God in that service? It depends on your behaviour.

Weaned

Thanks be to God, I am fairly recovered from that bout with the flu that I had. I am still not functioning at maximum strength, as today’s workout revealed, but I am on the mend. So with renewing energy and the help of God, I shall try to impart to you a brief meditation for this week. Let’s think about this verse:

Psalms 131:2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

A baby is born seeking its mother’s breast. The baby needs its mother’s milk. While the child is nursing, it will cry for its mother’s breast. It will sometimes pitch tantrums to have the breast, even when it is not hungry. A child that is still nursing certainly does not behave and quiet itself when it wants the breast. But then comes the weaning. Once the child is weaned, it will behave and quiet itself without ever being given the breast. It has learned to get along contentedly without something that was once so necessary. The weaned child has reached a level of growth so that it can do without something it formerly found so necessary.

The Psalmist in the above verse compares himself to a weaned child. He has reached a level of growth in his life in which he can behave and quiet himself even when doing without things that he once found so necessary. As we grow in life, we should be finding out that things we once thought so indispensable to our welfare, are not so indispensable after all. We find that we no longer have to have this job, or promotion, or house, or car, or relationship to be happy. Growing up is not so much an experience of having more as it is learning to be content with having less. It is learning to let go of things we once cried after. As we grow spiritually, it is amazing how much we discover that we do not have to have to be happy. The Christian who is always whining in discontent and pitching temper tantrums over what he does not have needs to grow. He needs to be weaned!

In commenting on this verse, Matthew Henry said it so well: “When our condition is not to our mind we must bring our mind to our condition; and then we are easy to ourselves and all about us; then our souls are as a weaned child.” Amen! What kind of child of God are you? Are you as a little baby crying for the breast? Or are you as a weaned child, behaved and quiet?