Diligence in Hearing: A Path to Spiritual Growth
By Elizabeth Prata
When we receive the word of God, we have a responsibility to it. Before we are saved, our responsibility is to repent and believe the Gospel, for the Kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:15).
After we are saved, we still have a responsibility regarding our response to the word. Here is my pastor:
“What you receive from it will be directly related to how you receive it. Look at the verse in Mark 4:24. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you. Now that’s a very simple principle. What you get out of or from God’s word will depend on how well you pay attention to it. In other words, there’s a reward for diligent understanding of God’s word, diligent effort. If you apply yourself to carefully understanding and heeding God’s word, you’re going to be richly rewarded for your efforts.”
The pastor continues with other verses along the same principles, earnestly devoting yourself to the Word as you receive it will yield wisdom, discernment, joy, and more. Pastor again:
“In Proverbs 19, verse 27; Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. But if you take heed of what you’ve been taught, then the truth will become a guard over you. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:16, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so, you will save both yourself and your hearers. And so don’t be careless in how you receive God’s Word. Pay attention to what you hear. And like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation. Have you been careful in how you hear? In our scripture reading today in Hebrews 5, the author criticizes the audience. He says, you have become dull of hearing, Hebrews 5, verse 11; “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” In other words, this is a classic description of someone who has not taken heed of the truth. They have not received it, thought carefully about it, and applied it to their lives.”
On the next day’s devotional, I heard Dustin Benge’s reading of the Puritan John Owen from his classic “Communion with God.” The principle of hearing well was brought up again. These ‘spiritual coincidences’ delight me.
The father’s love “was fixed on us before the foundation of the world. Before we were, or had done the least good, then were his thoughts upon us, — then was his delight in us; — then did the Son rejoice in the thoughts of fulfilling his Father’s delight in him, Prov. 8:30, says Owen. Why did the father love us? There was “nothing in us for which we
should be beloved” and “though we change every day, yet his love changeth not. Could any kind of provocation turn it away, it had long since ceased. Its unchangeableness is that which carries out the Father unto that infiniteness of patience and forbearance…”
Seeking the special closeness with God through our prayers and receiving of His word is a special privilege of the saints. “Men are generally esteemed according to the company they keep. It is an honour to stand in the presence of princes, though but as servants.
What honour, then, have all the saints, to stand with boldness in the presence of the Father, and there to enjoy his bosom love!” says Owen. “What a safe and sweet retreat is here for the saints, in all the scorns, reproaches, scandals, misrepresentations, which they undergo in the world.”
“His love is not ours in the sweetness of it until it be so received. Continually, then, act thoughts of faith on God, as love to thee, — as embracing thee with the eternal free love before described. When the Lord is, by his word, presented as such unto thee, let thy mind know it, and assent that it is so; and thy will embrace it, in its being so; and all thy affections be filled with it. Set thy whole heart to it; let it be
bound with the cords of this love.” ~John Owen
Receive His word faithfully, earnestly, knowing His love is immense and directed toward His children. Receive it, do diligence with it, and return this love in worship and in all our strength, mind, and heart.
Fly to the fountain, once filled with blood, now gushing love to all who are in Him. Receive His word with joy, implant it in your heart, do not delay, for within is a bountiful mercy. Owen concludes,
“Indeed, the great sin of believers is, that they make not use of Christ’s bounty as they ought to do; that we do not every day take of him mercy in abundance. The oil never ceaseth till the vessels cease;
supplies from Christ fail not, but only when our faith fails in receiving them.”
Further Resources
Hearts Aflame: John Owen Communion with Christ
CCEL, Communion With God by John Owen, online
Embrace the Challenge of Reading ‘Communion with God’ by John Owen, by Mike McKinley: summary of key points in Owen’s work
