The Best of the Portals of Prayer

Read: Matthew 3:13-17 // Psalm 29

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”
Matthew 17:5

Voices from Heaven

Listening is a lost art. As more and more stimuli are presented to us through an every-growing variety of media, our ability to focus our attention decreases. If a wife has trouble getting through to her husband because of the newspaper or a football game on T.V., or if a parent has difficulty being understood by the teenager because of the loud headphones, how likely is it that distractions prevent us from hearing God’s Word?
For all those present at the Baptism of Jesus, or for Peter, James, and John at our Lord’s Transfiguration, attention to Jesus’ words was not a problem. A voice was heard that affirmed what they were seeing, a voice cutting through every distraction and announcing that Jesus is the beloved Son of God, who is worthy of all our attention: “listen to Him.”
That same voice comes to us through the Holy Scriptures. By the work of the Holy Spirit, that Word gains our attention as it exposes our sin and leads us to Jesus who died for the guilt of our sin. God has the power to restore in us the art of listening to Him. Through the clamor of competing faiths and ideas in this deafening world. Jesus speaks – we listen – and we hear about eternal life.

Dear heavenly Father, open my ears that I might always eagerly hear Your truth in Jesus Christ. Amen.

October 06, 1998