Pull the Plug!

Ps 5:3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.............Wake up with a clean ear and look up to Him who hears 24/7.

I slammed my hand on top of my desk and moved slowly in my chair toward the little mischievous one and proclaimed for the millionth time, “I may be old, but I am not stupid! I can read between the lines that you cannot see. I can hear words that you think you know the meaning of, and above all else, God sees and hears more than I do!”

By now, I’m standing and the little one wishes he was running……back to his classmates!

It’s a terrible thing to fall into judgment. I use that word “fall” loosely and carefully because we all make our own beds eventually. The choices we make can have such devastating consequences for evil unless we hear the right voice.

What keeps little ones from hearing? What keeps the teen from hearing? What keeps the unsaved from hearing? Lastly, what keeps the Christian from hearing? Ear plugs come in all shapes and sizes but once they go in the ear, they conform to the shape of the ear canal so less can be heard. You can listen, but you may not hear what is right outside the ear.  Pull the plug and live!

Looking back at the young one in front of my desk I said, “There are three weeks left in this school year. What have you been doing for eight months? TELL ME!” Staring at me trying to figure out what I want to hear, he says, “I don’t know, Mrs. Loyd.”

It’s about this time of the confrontation that I can pretty much figure out if the little person is going to turn and make a change long enough to NOT be sent back to me…….well, at least for a couple of weeks, hopefully for the remainder of the school year.   IF THE TEACHER KICKS IN AND DOES HER/HIS JOB then the child has a better chance of making it, simply because that teacher follows her/his own rules of class behavior with consistency. Without consistency, the child with a plugged up ear, gets worse and pulls everyone else with him.

The ear plug is a monster! Children are easily influenced to do good but to do badly as well, depending on the voice they hear and the influence around them.  A teacher who wings it suffers the most because all her munchkins can become her walking dead before a quarter ends and by the beginning of the last nine week period, total destruction crawls from the floors and the walls rattle with a devastating fall. If that teacher doesn’t have a set procedure with detailed lesson plans flowered with spoken consequences and then the character enough to see it done properly every day, her class will become her worst nightmare!

Start out right, end right.  How many times have we heard the white heads tell us “how” to do something, and yet here we go, off to do our own thing just because we are younger and know more than those who have lived longer than we have! I have been a fool at times but God is patient with us all, wouldn’t you agree? God ain’t old and He for sure is NOT stupid!

He has been, is, and will be forever!! How many times do we have to be sent to His office! We confess once trouble comes or a good sermon knocks the ear plug out, don’t we? Praise the Lord for the Word of God to convict our hearts and praise the Lord for those God places in our path to guide us to truth.

While studying on “hearing” I came up with the following tidbits. Maybe some of them will help you today. There were too many to print all of them.Happy Hearing!

2Ch 9:7 Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.

We all want to be happy, then hear what God says as you read it! A smile will follow your day.

Ne 1:6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.

Confession must be immediate to keep the ear open.

 Ps 66:16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul

It’s hard to hear God or authority if there is no reverence for that authority. That is another reason we teach young people to obey authority for thus obeying authority, they learn to hear God when He speaks about their lost soul. In our homes if we constantly undermine our own authority, how do we expect our children to obey?

Ps 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

Hey, you know it is there! Confess that sin; get it out so you can HEAR!

Ho 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land

Truth must be taught to be heard. The knowledge of God must come from the One who holds the knowledge.

Heb 3:15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

Turn toward what you hear from God. Don’t be a fool and think you know better or your ear plug may go deeper!

Until next time, Lord willing!

 Sharon