Day 4 | 21-Day Growth Challenge | A Key to Life: Listening Well

Thursday, September 02, 2010 Bryan Hudson 13 Comments







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SCRIPTURE:
Proverbs 4:10 (NLT), My child, listen to me and do as I say, and you will have a long, good life. 11 I will teach you wisdom’s ways and lead you in straight paths. 12 When you walk, you won’t be held back; when you run, you won’t stumble. 13 Take hold of my instructions; don’t let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life.

INSIGHT: 
A lot of mistakes that people make have to do with not listening closely. Have you ever insisted that someone's instruction was incorrect, only to learn later that there was something lacking in listening?

One of the most important skills and disciplines in life is to listen with a heart to learn. In fact, it is the responsibility of the learner to be clear about instructions and details. Failure in clarity can result in an inconvenience like going to the wrong home address, or something more tragic like an airline pilot trying to land on the wrong runway. Jesus said on more than one occasion, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Today's text, and indeed, the whole of Proverbs, reveals many benefits to listening including: 1) A long, high quality life, 2) Embracing wisdom's ways, 3) Knowing the "straight path," 4) Neither hindered when walking in purpose nor stumbling when running.

Good listening enables you to "take hold of instruction."  As an educator, I desire to see students listen to the point of being able to understand and apply principles in useful and unique ways. Good students and disciples of Christ must "guard" against losing knowledge by applying learning in meaningful ways. In education circles, it's called "transfer of learning" from the classroom to real world uses.

According to verse 13, embracing instruction through good listening is one of the "keys" to a prosperous life.

PRAYER:
"Lord help me to listen with a heart to learn. I have ears to hear so that I can gain a heart of wisdom. Help me remove distractions and barriers from listening to You. In Jesus's Name,  Amen!"

ACTIVATION: (Use comment section below to share your insights. Record sensitive items in your personal journal. You can login or simply use your first name.)
  1. Looking at Proverbs Chapter 4, what are 3-4 other benefits to listening well?
  2. What prevents us from listening well? 
  3. What actions will you take today related to this lesson?
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COMMENT SECTION:
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13 comments :

  1. 1.) Listening will lead to wisdom & understanding which will "take care of you" and "keep you safe". Prov. 4:6 NCV
    Listening also brings "health to the whole body". Prov. 4:22 NCV

    2.)When we do not listen with our "whole heart". When we do not have the intention of listening to learn something new and then apply what we have learned. If we listen only but do not plan to act upon what we have heard then we have not gained knowledge and have not payed attention.

    3.)I will always remind myself to include quiet time in my devotionals to actually hear from God and listen (act on what he is saying)! It is not good enough to be doing what God told you last. We must always be ready to hear his next instruction as well.

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  2. 1) Listening is a world within itself, where we gain most of what have knowledge, strength energy. endurance and understanding.
    2)People, places and things is where I find my distraction comes form
    3)Eliminate the distraction thats stop me from the having the keys to a porsperous and well lived life.Cj)

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  3. 1)Looking at Proverbs chapter 4, some benefits to listening are protection(4:6), honor(4:6),
    and healing(4:22).

    2)A lack of desire is the major thing that keeps one from listening well.

    3)I will listen to the wisdom of today's lesson and take the time to hear the message behind the word.

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  4. 1)Listening well brings safety, life, and health.

    2)Distractions prevent us from listening well. If we “don’t get sidetracked” (v.27, NLT), nothing can pull us away from the path of wisdom. We also do not listen well when we do not allow wisdom to penetrate our hearts.

    3)I will examine whether I am listening well to what the Lord is saying to me through his word. I will pause and let his word penetrate my heart as I read it.

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  5. 1. Looking at Proverbs Chapter 4, what are 3-4 other benefits to listening well?
    protection,health,honor

    2. What prevents us from listening well?
    We do not listen well sometimes because we think we can do.

    3. What actions will you take today related to this lesson?
    Stop and make sure I hear and understand what is said.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1. According to Chapter 4, listening leads to long life, being protected, bring honor and exalts the listener.

    2. Our attitude can play a major part of our not being able to receive instruction, correction, and yes blessings. Having an rebellious attitude, or an arrogant attitude or just wanting things our way are all deterents to listening.

    3. Today I listened to the Holy Spirit and was able to save myself some grief.

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  7. Day 3 Joy and Resonsibility with your "Three T's"

    1. Wisdom is knowing the truth about something and understanding is taking that knowledge and using it .
    2. Someone has a good income, offered opportunity to save a portion of the income, the company will match a certain amount, but the person never takes advantage of the companies provision.
    3.Being able to praise and give thanks to God for everything(even the challenges), then recognizing our need to give back to God and to others,through our time, talent, and treasures.
    4, Today I will find someone to bless.

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  8. Proverbs 4:10 (NLT), My child, listen to me and do as I say, and you will have a long, good life. 11 I will teach you wisdom’s ways and lead you in straight paths. 12 When you walk, you won’t be held back; when you run, you won’t stumble. 13 Take hold of my instructions; don’t let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life.

    1. Benefits to listening: long life, wisdom for living, success in life's endeavors, few set backs and/or failure

    2. Distractions of all kinds: sensory perceptions (things we should not see, hear, touch, taste, smell), worries, cares, fear, people who hinder us Gal. 6:9, and being out of God's will and purpose.

    3. Clear out the distractions that prevent listening well. Distractions are rooted in the carnal, natural realm. Decision: Set my mind on things above by meditating on what the Word of God speaks about a matter.

    3.

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  9. 1. In addition to a long life, listening well helps us to gain favor with others, live prosperous lives, as well as relatively low stress lives. Consider the supervisor employee relationship. When the supervisor realizes that we value his or her instruction, we often gain favor and respect in their eyes. Consequently, the Lord allows us to prosper and become an excellent asset because of our gaining valuable knowledge due to the wise decision to listen. Furthermore, these benefits gained through listening result in low stress lives because of an amicable supervisor/employee relationship and the general absence of stress that is a reward of this type of relationship. Likewise, when we listen and apply God’s Word we are in His good favor, thereby releasing His blessings upon us.
    2. Cluttered thoughts and lives keep us from listening as we should, as they cause a distraction that removes our focus from God’s purpose for our lives.
    3. I will purpose to listen more attentively, which will ultimately result in being able to cultivate a closer relationship with God, as poor listening skills is a great time waster that causes us to redo various tasks. The time saved by proper listening can best be used by increasing time in God’s presence.

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  10. litsening helps you to learn and to receive proper in intruction. Also it helps you to clearly get understanding.

    Being distracted by other things going on in your life. And sometimes we think we already know whats being communicated to us.

    I will stay focused and hear what is being communicated to me in order to get the full complete understanding.

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  11. 1.Another benefit to listening according to Prov.4:14-15 is, it will keep you out of trouble and will even tell you how to avoid problems of wicked people.Further,it tells of the benefits to living a just life.
    2.What can prevent you from listening well is when you can't wait until the other person finishes talking to put in your opinion. You can miss a vital part of what they are saying because you are concentrating on your own response/thought.
    3.The action I will take is to reread the scripture for today. Listen again to what it is saying to me. Jotting down some keywords,
    meditating on it,and asking myself some questions.How am I living out these instructions in my life right now?

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  12. 1. Benefits to listening well are: a) not experiencing repeated mistakes. b) less time wasted trying to understand what went wrong or why things didn't turn out the way it was suppose to. c) not passing on the wrong information to someone else, which could really do damage in certain situations.
    2. What prevents us from listening well? a)many times we are distracted by other things on our minds "multi-tasking". b)Then there are those I call the "finishers" who think they know what you are going to say...so in their minds they finish the sentence, thereby not even hearing what is directly being said. c)Also it could be thinking that whats being said is not important enough to really listen.
    3. Action taken: because I find myself multi-tasking a lot daily. I think its important to write down what I believe I heard and then repeat it back to the person speaking.

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  13. "Lord help me to listen with a heart to learn. I have ears to hear so that I can gain a heart of wisdom. Help me remove distractions and barriers from listening to You. In Jesus's Name, Amen!"
    This is something that I need to continually pray.

    Looking at Proverbs Chapter 4, what are 3-4 other benefits to listening well?
    Listening well prevents you from making costly mistakes that cost time, money and effort from being misused.
    Listening well allows you to learn form others how are more experienced than you. You can gain from their expertise.
    Listening well produces wisdom - and leads you away from foolishness.

    What prevents us from listening well?
    Barriers include:
    1. Being too busy to give full focus to someone
    2. Distractions by things that lead you away from where you need to be
    3. Not understanding the importance of the words you hear.

    What actions will you take today related to this lesson?
    I will deliberately listen better to those who have wisdom.

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