Dull of Hearing

Heb 5:11  Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. 

When you have something you want to tell someone, something you consider important, and yet you know your target audience is not one to really listen to you, how does it make you feel?

Do you contemplate not talking at all, even though you really have something important to tell them? Do you preface your talk with exhortations to please, this time really listen? It's not easy trying to talk with someone who listens to you only superficially catching a few words here and there and then piecing together only part of what you've said thinking they understand it all. Watching eyes glaze over in that look which tells you their mind is elsewhere- is never pleasant. Watching the wheels turn in their brains, so to speak, you know they've already gone off thinking things on their own- maybe even things they now want to say, rather than continue to listen to you and what you're trying to convey.

There is every day conversation- bantering back and forth, talking about things that are in the long run non-consequential, and there is serious discussion on matters that might be life threatening. Also, let's not leave out the middle of the two, the conversations we have that are important to us but not life threatening.

When the person you talk to is dull of hearing, it's hard to speak to them, isn't it? And I don't mean dull in the sense of being deaf (though that makes it hard too.) I mean their ability to comprehend and really listen with the desire to understand you is dull, they just don't care enough to be attentive.

Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. 

Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 

Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 

By going and preaching, prophesying as the Lord would have him, Isaiah knew in advance that the majority of people who would hear him speak would hear but not understand….they would see but not perceive. The listeners would have fat hearts, heavy ears, and closed eyes-  selfish hearts, no true comprehension, no desire to be enlightened.  IF they did have those things they would be converted from their lives of sin and ruin and be healed by God. Most people fall into the category of not wanting to hear, of stopping their ears and shutting their eyes, while their hearts are filled fat with their own lives not wanting anything to upset their way of believing, their way of living.

Just imagine for one single moment how significantly the Savior's three year ministry affected lives. Beliefs that had been in place for years and years, generation after generation, were challenged. The majority of those listeners of Jesus did not want their worlds changed, their beliefs altered, and they were among those yelling for Him to be crucified.

Today there is still a majority that would yell for His crucifixion rather than believe in His truths if He came and tried to open the eyes of the spiritually blind. He does come, and He does try, with the Holy Spirit in His place. And yet we know few will find the way.

God help us find the way.

Mat 13:15  For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 

Jesus' words from Isaiah applied to Him and His offered healing.

May our eyes see, and our ears hear and may we understand with our hearts.

Mar 8:17  And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? 

Mar 8:18  Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? 

PLEASE help us see, hear, understand and remember all that You would have us know, Lord!

Luk 24:25  Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 

Luk 24:26  Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 

PLEASE let our hearts NOT be slow, let us believe!

Lord we need the Holy Spirit! We need to buy of You - gold tried in the fire of faith. We need to be clothed with the white raiment of Your righteousness, we need the eye salve of comprehension, of understanding, of being able to see spiritually all You would have us see! Bless us, Lord, please, bless us and keep us in You and Your love and far from the evil that surrounds us on every side!

All in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and forever!!!!!!!

Prayer- Hope, Trust

'Do we believe, without a doubt? When we pray, do we believe, not that we shall receive
the things for which we ask on a future day, but that we receive them, then and there?

Such is the teaching of this inspiring Scripture. How we need to pray, "Lord, increase our faith," until doubt be gone, and implicit trust claims the promised blessings, as its very own.

This is no easy condition.

 It is reached only after many a failure, after much praying, after many waitings, after much trial of faith.

May our faith so increase until we realize and receive all the fulness there is in that Name which guarantees to do so much.

Our Lord puts trust as the very foundation of praying.

The background of prayer is trust.

The whole issuance of Christ's ministry and work was dependent on implicit trust
in His Father.

The centre of trust is God.

Mountains of difficulties, and all other hindrances to prayer are moved out of the way by trust and his virile henchman, faith.

When trust is perfect and without doubt, prayer is simply the outstretched hand, ready
to receive. Trust perfected, is prayer perfected. Trust looks to receive the thing asked for
-- and gets it. Trust is not a belief that God can bless, that He will bless, but that He does
bless, here and now.

Trust always operates in the present tense.

Hope looks toward the future. Trust looks to the present.

Hope expects. Trust possesses.

Trust receives what prayer acquires. So that what prayer needs, at all times, is abiding and abundant trust.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 12)
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Is this truth?

Maybe I've spent so much time hoping I've forgotten about trust.  Am I so timid in my faith I just stop at hope?  Do my own doubts rear up their ugly little heads so that I'm not able to trust fully? I don't want to believe that it could be true, I want to trust. I want to ask and trust. But… see, there's one of those doubts already. The 'but' says all too loudly, 'What happens if you trust and it doesn't come to pass? Doesn't hope leave room for a little doubt so that there's wiggle room to pacify self by saying, 'I hoped but I knew it could go either way.'  Trust on the other hand doesn't say at all that it could go either way, I WILL get what I prayed for beyond doubt.  Do we truly believe we get what we pray for WHEN we pray for it, or are our prayers always geared towards a future response?  The … 'I'll pray for you.'  That's a promise for a future prayer for someone that might need prayer right then and there.  We pray for someone and we continue to pray for them asking God over and over to grant their petition- all the while not believing the very first time we asked for that particular petition that it was answered.  We don't believe because results aren't immediate in our understanding. That job we pray for that never seems to come, is it God not hearing so we keep praying?

What about this parable of our Savior's...

Luk 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Luk 18:2  Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
Luk 18:3  And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
Luk 18:4  And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
Luk 18:5  Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
Luk 18:6  And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
Luk 18:7  And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
Luk 18:8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

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We ought to always pray- NOT FAINT.

God will avenge His own elect… THOSE crying to Him DAY and NIGHT, THOSE He bears long with!

We must keep praying with hope not lamenting our lack of the described trust above because we must cry day and night for our Savior to Save us, even as we know He is willing to save us. We must keep praying for His return, though we KNOW He will return.   We must keep praying because WE BELIEVE, and we need His bearing long with us, helping our unbelief!

That job, that healing, that helping all that left in God's hands to provide as He sees fit IS an ANSWERED prayer if we are praying for HIS WILL BE DONE.  We WANT HIS WILL, and He who sees the end from the beginning knows what is best, this is what we must TRUST, not that we will see the immediate results we DESIRE! This isn't about our desire, or at least it isn't supposed to be about what we want. Our desire must be HIS WILL and this we can trust in! His Will Be Done!

Let us TRUST in HIS WILL, believing when we pray all our prayers are answered according to HIS will, not our fleshy, finite, limited, lowly manner of comprehension of how we think things would be best- how can we ever truly know.  We have our hopes and a lot of them are based in selfishness, not God.  We must HOPE IN GOD, we must TRUST IN GOD!

IN HIS LOVE!