There was a song in Sunday School we used to sing. It goes like this: “Open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus. To reach out and touch Him; and tell Him we love Him. Open our ears Lord, and teach us to listen. Open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus”. That song popped into my head as I read Our Daily Bread today and it talked about sin making us deaf to God. The text is taken from Isaiah 42: 23-25. The Message version is amazing; it starts from vs 18-25. It reads: “Pay attention! Are you deaf? Open your eyes! Are you blind? You're my servant, and you're not looking! You're my messenger, and you're not listening! The very people I depended upon, servants of God, blind as a bat—willfully blind! You've seen a lot, but looked at nothing. You've heard everything, but listened to nothing. God intended, out of the goodness of his heart, to be lavish in his revelation. But this is a people battered and cowed, shut up in attics and closets,
Victims licking their wounds, feeling ignored, abandoned. But is anyone out there listening? Is anyone paying attention to what's coming? Who do you think turned Jacob over to the thugs, let loose the robbers on Israel? Wasn't it God himself, this God against whom we've sinned- not doing what he commanded, not listening to what he said? Isn't it God's anger that's behind all this, God's punishing power? Their whole world collapsed but they still didn't get it; their life is in ruins but they don't take it to heart.” Amazing! I never looked at it from that angle. That God was answering but I wasn’t hearing. It makes me think, I mean really think. I asked God before if I sin unintentionally, forgive me but make me mindful of my ways. Maybe we’re doing something that is stopping God’s word from getting to us. We’ve been seeking God for an answer or asking for a change and He’s been answering us all along but maybe our choice in music, our “happy hour habits”, our relationships, etc. has been making us deaf to the voice of the Lord. I pray if that is the case, the Lord will open our eyes and bring it to our attention. It would be sad that God is talking to us, warning us even but our sin is preventing us from hearing. Be blessed.