ATTENTION
WHAT SHOULD HAVE OUR ATTENTION?
Ecclesiastes 7:13 . . . Notice the way God does things; then fall into line. Don’t fight the ways of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked?
John 5:19 . . . Jesus replied, “I assure you; the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.”
We should pay attention to what God is doing and the way he is working.
Hebrews 2:3-4 . . . What makes us think that we can escape if we are indifferent to this great salvation that was announced by the Lord Jesus himself? It was passed on to us by those who heard him speak, and God verified the message by signs and wonders and various miracles and by giving gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose to do so.
Luke 8:18 . . . Be sure to pay attention to what you hear. To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But to those who are not listening, even what they think they have will be taken away from them.
1 Corinthians 2:2 . . . I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.
We should focus on the message Jesus has for us. What Jesus says is reinforced by who he is-God’s Son. If Jesus was not God’s Son, he would be incapable of raising us from the dead. He would have no power to save us and take us to heaven. Think of the most important person on earth. If that person wanted to talk with you, would you listen? Would you give him or her your full attention? How much more important is the Son of God!
Psalm 119:78 . . . Bring disgrace upon the arrogant people who lied about me; meanwhile, I will concentrate on your commandments.
2 Peter 1:19 . . . We have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. Pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a light shining in a dark place-until the day Christ appears and his brilliant light shines in your hearts.
God’s Word deserves our attention. Through his Word God speaks to us and brings us life everlasting.
Proverbs 16:20 . . . Those who listen to instruction will prosper; those who trust the Lord will be happy.
Proverbs 19:27 . . . If you stop listening to instruction, my child, you have turned your back on knowledge.
Proverbs 22:17 . . . Listen to the words of the wise; apply your heart to my instruction.
Proverbs 5:13 . . . Oh, why didn’t I listen to my teachers? Why didn’t I pay attention to those who gave me instruction?
Proverbs 5:1 . . . My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen carefully to my wise counsel.
We should pay attention to instruction we receive from God’s Word and from wise counselors or teachers. If we don’t, we may be turning our backs on God himself.
Matthew 7:15 . . . Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really wolves that will tear you apart.
Matthew 16:11-12 . . . “How could you even think I was talking about food? So again I say, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’” Then at last they understood that he wasn’t speaking about yeast or bread but about the false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
We are to be aware of false prophets and false teachings. If a person is not speaking for God, we should not accept that person’s teaching as from God.
Mark 13:32-33 . . . “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. And since you don’t know when they will happen, stay alert and keep watch.”
Luke 21:31, 34-36 . . . Just so, when you see the events I’ve described taking place, you can be sure that the Kingdom of God is near. . . “Watch out! Don’t let me find you living in careless ease and drunkenness, and filled with the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware, as in a trap. For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. Keep a constant watch. And pray that, if possible, you may escape these horrors and stand before the Son of Man.”
1 Thessalonians 5:4-6 . . . You aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief. For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be sober.
We should prepare for Christ’s coming again by paying attention to the way we live. We should live as if Christ is coming today.
Ephesians 6:18 . . . Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.
Colossians 4:2 . . . Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
Matthew 26:41 . . . Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak!
Our prayer life deserves our attention. That’s our key connection to God himself.
1 Corinthians 16:13 . . . Be on guard. Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong.
1 Timothy 4:16 . . . Keep a close watch on yourself and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right, and God will save you and those who hear you.
1 Timothy 4:8 . . . Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next.
The growth and strengthening of our spiritual lives deserves our attention. If it pays to exercise our bodies so we keep them healthy, how much more it pays to build our souls so they are healthy.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE WAYS GOD MAY GET OUR ATTENTION?
Matthew 7:24 . . . “Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.”
Ezekiel 13:2 . . . Son of man, speak against the false prophets of Israel who are inventing their own prophecies. Tell them to listen to the word of the Lord.
John 8:47 . . . Anyone whose Father is God listens gladly to the words of God. Since you don’t, it proves you aren’t God’s children.
God uses his Word to get our attention. But sometimes a gentle whisper from God gets our attention more than a shout from someone else.
Psalm 104:24-25 . . . O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. Here is the ocean, vast and wide, teeming with life of every kind, both great and small.
Romans 1:20 . . . From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.
Jonah 1:12 . . . “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. For I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”
God uses nature to lead us to him. Seeing the fingerprints and footprints of the Creator himself should get any person’s attention.
Acts 2:22 . . . “People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus of Nazareth by doing wonderful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know.”
Mark 9:7 . . . Then a cloud came over them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Acts 8:6 . . . Crowds listened intently to what he had to say because of the miracles he did.
Acts 9:3-5 . . . As he was nearing Damascus on this mission, a brilliant light from heaven suddenly beamed down upon him! He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, sir?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!”
Exodus 3:4 . . . When the Lord saw that he had caught Moses’ attention, God called to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied.
God sometimes chooses the miraculous to get our attention. There are small miracles such as our next breath and great miracles like the parting of the Red Sea, quiet miracles like the sunrise and shattering miracles like a volcano erupting. There are “take-for-granted” miracles like a smile and “once-in-a-lifetime” miracles like an angel’s appearance. But any of these should catch and hold our attention, then focus it on God himself.
Job 36:15 . . . By means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer. For he gets their attention through adversity.
Daniel 9:14 . . .The Lord has brought against us the disaster he prepared, for we did not obey him, and the Lord our God is just in everything he does.
Psalm 141:6 . . . When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff, they will listen to my words and find them pleasing.
Isaiah 28:11 . . . Since they refuse to listen, God will speak to them through foreign oppressors who speak an unknown language!
God can use difficult times in our lives to get our attention. Then we need to figure out what he wants us to do.
1 Samuel 3:9-10 . . . He said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Yes, Lord, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed. And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel replied, “Yes, your servant is listening.”
Jeremiah 29:19 . . . “They refuse to listen to me, though I have spoken to them repeatedly through my prophets. And you who are in exile have not listened either,” says the Lord.
God can use other people to get our attention and direct us to him. When a person truly is speaking for God, we must listen.
HOW CAN WE PAY MORE ATTENTION TO GOD?
Deuteronomy 13:4 . . . Serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him.
John 8:47 . . . Anyone whose Father is God listens gladly to the words of God. Since you don’t, it proves you aren’t God’s children.
John 10:16 . . . I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice; and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
A dependent relationship with God helps us to pay more attention to him.
Ezekiel 40:4 . . . He said to me, “Son of man, watch and listen. Pay close attention to everything I show you. You have been brought here so I can show you many things. Then you will return to the people of Israel and tell them everything you have seen.”
Isaiah 5:12 . . . You furnish lovely music and wine at your grand parties; the harps, lyres, tambourines, and flutes are superb! But you never think about the Lord or notice what he is doing.
When God is a regular part of our thoughts we are more prone to notice what he is doing.
1 Kings 19:11-13 . . . “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Psalm 46:10 . . . Be silent, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.
A still, quiet spirit helps us to give our attention to God. A whispering God is more powerful than a shouting neighbor.
Hebrews 3:15 . . . Never forget the warning: “Today you must listen to his voice. Don’t harden your hearts against him as Israel did when they rebelled.”
We should make listening to God a priority worthy of immediate attention.
Psalm 85:8 . . . I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his people, his faithful ones. But let them not return to their foolish ways.
Proverbs 4:20 . . . Pay attention, my child, to what I say. Listen carefully.
Hebrews 2:1 . . . We must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.
We must focus our attention on God to truly listen to him. If God truly is your God, you will listen to him. If he isn’t, you won’t.
Psalm 78:1 . . . O my people, listen to my teaching. Open your ears to what I am saying.
Matthew 11:15 . . . Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand!
Matthew 13:9, 12 . . .Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand! . . . To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But to those who are not listening, even what they have will be taken away from them.
Our willing attitude helps us pay attention to God. Listening is not merely an action, but also an attitude. As your respect for someone wanes, so will your listening. As your love for someone grows, so will your listening.
Isaiah 50:5 . . . The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened. I do not rebel or turn away.
Ezekiel 12:2 . . . “Son of man, you live among rebels who could see the truth if they wanted to, but they don’t want to. They could hear me if they would listen, but they won’t listen because they are rebellious.”
Ezekiel 2:7 . . . You must give them my messages whether they listen or not. But they won’t listen, for they are completely rebellious!
Jeremiah 17:23 . . . They did not listen or obey. They stubbornly refused to pay attention and would not respond to discipline.
Jeremiah 13:15 . . . Listen! Do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken.
A rebellious or proud spirit can keep us from paying attention to God. Rebellion or pride turns our affections inward. Humility turns our affections outward.
1 Samuel 15:22 . . . Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much better than offering the fat of rams.”
Ezekiel 33:31 . . . They come pretending to be sincere and sit before you listening. But they have no intention of doing what I tell them. They express love with their mouths, but their hearts seek only after money.
Isaiah 42:20 . . . You see and understand what is right but refuse to act on it. You hear, but you don’t really listen.
James 1:22-23 . . . Remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself. For if you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance.
We can pay attention to God by obeying him. If you think God is worth obeying, you will. If you think he is not worth obeying, you won’t.
HOW CAN WE PAY BETTER ATTENTION TO EACH OTHER?
Song of Songs 8:13 . . . Young Man: “O my beloved, lingering in the gardens, how wonderful that your companions can listen to your voice. Let me hear it, too!”
You can’t pay attention to someone if they aren’t nearby. Relationship and proximity should enhance our ability and desire to pay attention to one another. Those near and dear may say the same words as a stranger, but those words will have vastly different meaning.
Hebrews 5:11 . . . There is so much more we would like to say about this. But you don’t seem to listen, so it’s hard to make you understand.
We should try to understand what others are saying. Listening to words and listening to message are two different things.
James 2:3-4, 8-9 . . . If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”-well, doesn’t this discrimination show that you are guided by wrong motives? . . . Yes indeed, it is good when you truly obey our Lord’s royal command found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you pay special attention to the rich, you are committing a sin, for you are guilty of breaking that law.
Pure motives should lead us to give indiscriminate attention. Why we listen is as important as what we hear. How we listen is as important as the words themselves.
Matthew 9:23 . . . When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he noticed the noisy crowds and heard the funeral music.
Acts 14:9 . . . He was listening as Paul preached, and Paul noticed him and realized he had faith to be healed.
Genesis 40:6 . . . The next morning Joseph noticed the dejected look on their faces.
Mark 3:1 . . . Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand.
There is more for us to pay attention to than just what people say. We can be alert to what is happening around us. We can pay attention to others’ inner strengths and needs, as well as others’ facial expressions and body language.
Proverbs 12:15 . . . Fools think they need no advice, but the wise listen to others.
Proverbs 15:31-32 . . . If you listen to constructive criticism, you will be at home among the wise. If you reject criticism, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding.
Realizing the benefit of advice and constructive criticism helps us to be more attentive to what others have to say. Listening is more than hearing, it is changing our very lives.
Acts 26:3 . . . I know you are an expert on Jewish customs and controversies. Now please listen to me patiently!
1 Timothy 2:11 . . . Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively.
Hebrews 13:22 . . . I urge you, dear friends, please listen carefully to what I have said in this brief letter.
James 1:19 . . . Dear friends, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
The way we listen can increase our attentiveness; for example, we should listen patiently, quietly and carefully. Careless listening doesn’t hear much.
PROMISES FROM GOD:
Psalm 116:2 . . . Because he bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I have breath!
1 Timothy 4:16 . . . Keep a close watch on yourself and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right, and God will save you and those who hear you.