Do you Hear What I Hear?
Sunday’s Monday
Do you Hear What I Hear?
As we exit the Christmas season and enter the New Year it’s important to remember those feelings of good will and love that we experienced. We seem all to quickly
to settle back into the rush, clamber and confusion of life, where so many material things absorb our thoughts and steal our time. Life soon turns to longing for those good old days, of which we glimpsed over the holidays. Yet, we do not terry long in this thinking as Satan has us so busy with business that we ignore the warning in, Matthew 6:19-20 (NLT), 19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.
Which brings me to the title, “Do you Hear What I Hear?” Most Christians today, haven’t change from other Christians over thousands of years. We experience a sense of arrogance in that we often take God for granted. We allow greed, selfishness, and the false feeling of personal control, to overrule what is written in James 4:13-15 (NLT), 13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog, it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Fact is; control is a momentary feeling among humans of power and wisdom in which may go awry in the next moment. Ergo do or did we actually have control?
I didn’t know the history of this song until today when I found it on wikipedia.org. “Do You Hear What I Hear” is a song written in October 1962, with lyrics by Noel Regney and music by Gloria Shayne. The pair, married at the time, wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This history allows it exclusive purpose for today as we each need the peace of God in our life! As we have need of peace of mind, peace for our nation and peace in this world, just as it is in heaven. We’ve entered a new year, which is the first of this decade, and we should be aware more than ever, of God’s calling for each of us. We need desperately to be prayed up (constantly communicating with Jesus), read up (steeped in the study of His word) and fasted up (completely humbled before Him) so we can hear what Jesus is saying to each of us. As it is written in James 4:6-7 (NLT), 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
However, it is good that we observe Luke 14:28 (NLT), “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? It is good to know that we have enough desire (want to) to give up that which now corrupts us and accept those things of God which builds our spiritual character. Again, I ask; “Do You Hear What I Hear”? In Revelation 3:20 (NLT), “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. The key here is, each individual who hears the knock of Jesus must open his or her door to receive Him in. Our part is merely to hear the voice of God and obey His instruction!
Ergo, I say again; “Do You Hear What I Hear”? Do you hear the promise in 1 Peter 1:23 (NLT), For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. I’m hearing that it’s not about what I can acquire on earth, that God has me here for.
God’s offering the reward of eternal life with Him in heaven. His promise is recorded in Colossians 3:23-24 (NLT), 23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. I know the rewards of this world are temporal and will come and go quickly, but on the other hand the rewards from God will last for all eternity. No brainer; right!
“Do You Hear What I Hear?” In the book of John 14:30-31 (NLT),
30 “I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, 31 but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going. There we have it from Jesus Himself, our marching orders (if you will). We are to do what the Father requires of us, so the world will know that we are His, in heart and soul!
My prayer for us this week is that of The Apostle Paul in Romans 15:13 (NLT), I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit: along with the wisdom he shared in 2 Timothy 2:2 (NLT), You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. Amen
HAVE A BLESSED WEEK BY BEING A BLESSING TO OTHERS!
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