Tag: give attention

9.a. Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it

Joel 1:2   Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.

Psalms 49:1    Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

Isaiah 34:1    Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it.

Jeremiah 5:21    “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.

Micah 1:2    Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

Matthew 13:9    He who has ears, let him hear.”

Psalms 50:1    The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Isaiah 1:2    Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.

Have you ever tried to make a point to someone who did not want to listen to what you were telling them?  You start by reasoning and logically speak about what you know is to be true.  However, no matter what you say they have determined what you are telling them does not apply to them or they are different or it is foolishness.  Their mind is made up and you might as well be speaking to a rock.  Such it is with the very Word of God to those who harden their hearts against it.  God’s Word can bring hope, faith, courage, rest, refuge, power, joy, purpose, focus, and love if the hearer would be open to hear it speak into their heart, mind, and soul.  God calls out through His prophets and His Word, “Listen”, “Hear This”, “Give Attention”, “Pay Attention”, and “Give Ear”.  To what is God asking His creation to give ear too?  This can be summed up in John 3:16-21  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.  But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

He calls out to each person “Come onto me” “Cast your cares upon Me” “Receive redemption and salvation through My Son and spend eternity with me” and yet deaf ears are turned toward His invitation.  God warns each person that rejection of His Son will result in eternal torment for eternity and yet deaf ears are turned toward Him.

How many times do we go through our day with deaf ears turned on?  How many times do we listen more to what the world has to say and offer rather than seeking and desiring God’s Word speaking into our life for each moment of every day?

Look carefully then how you walk

“Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds,  for riches do not last forever; and does a crown endure to all generations?”

Psalms 112:1   Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!  His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.  Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.  Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice.

Psalms 37:25-26     I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.  He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing.

 Deuteronomy 15:7-10     “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother,  but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.  Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin.  You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.

 Job 31:16-20    “If I have withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,  or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it  (for from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow),  if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or the needy without covering,

 Proverbs 24:30-34     I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,  and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.  Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction.  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,  and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

 Proverbs 18:9    Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.

 Romans 12:11     Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

 Proverbs 24:27     Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.

 Colossians 4:5     Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

 Ephesians 5:15    Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,

There a few of points I take home from today’s verses.   Use time wisely.  Give thought and prepare for the tasks at hand.  Take care of what God has provided.  Look carefully at our walk (application of God’s word in our life).  Give to the needy. Be generous. Serve the Lord.  Help the poor, fatherless, and widow.  We need to be mindful of how we spend our time, resources, and what we spend it on.  If it is only about gaining riches, we fail.  If it is only about what can be gained with the least amount of effort, it’s a waste. If it is not with the intent to humbly serve, honor, glorify, follow and obey God, it is to our destruction.  Listen to what God says to your heart and mind in His word.  Desire and learn to hear His quiet small voice of leading and directing you for His honor.

Who is a God like you

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

“Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD,”

Psalms 108:1   My heart is steadfast, O God! I will sing and make melody with all my being!   Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn!  I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.  For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!  That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer me!

 Micah 7:18-20     Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.  He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

 Ephesians 2:4-7     But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

 Isaiah 51:2-11     For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.  “Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.  My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait.  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.  “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings.

11  And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Who is like God? When we think of His love, grace, and mercy do we put it in context of “Our Sin”?  When we think of His anger, judgement, wrath do we think of it in the context of “Others Sins”?  One of these views results in joy, peace, safety, hope, strength, courage, rest, and praise to God.  The other view results in a life critical of others, complacent neglect because the inner self is not examined.  Praise to God does not come from looking at others sins in light of our perceived righteous actions, no it comes from knowing God, His holiness, and a deep understanding of our sinful nature.  We find this in and through His word.  God’s word is sharper than a two edged sword, able to divide the thought and intents of man.  Spend time in His word and let it speak to your heart, soul and mind. In and through it and His promises we find hope and peace.

Before you were born

“I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.”

Psalms 71:6  Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.

Psalms 22:9  Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.  On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Isaiah 46:3  “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb;  even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

Psalms 139:15  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Isaiah 49:1   Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.

Jeremiah 1:5    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Galatians 1:15    But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

Don’t these verses just give you more and more understanding and confidence in God.  “Before I was formed”, “in Your book were written, every on of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them”, “even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save”.  It is hard for us to understand, but God is God and before Him is no other.  Scripture says He knows the beginning from the end.  These verses indicate not only does He know it but He is the author of it.  He is the author of the very beginning of our lives.  He gives us free will to choose to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey.  It is no surprise to God the paths we take in either obedience or disobedience.  He has purpose for each of our lives.  Seek Him, praise Him,  and allow Him to lead you through to eternity.