Are You Listening?

I have experienced a recurring theme in my life.  It’s that painful feeling of rejection that comes from not being heard.  Sometimes it happens when someone completely misunderstands what I’ve said.  At other times I feel like someone is just not listening or paying attention to what I’m saying.  I’m sure many of you have felt the same way.  It’s a common desire to want to be heard, to be understood, to be known. 

I was struggling in this area this past week when God revealed Himself to me.  I recently heard someone say that God doesn’t speak to us audibly, He speaks louder than that.  The other night, I experienced this when His quiet words penetrated deep into my heart. 

As I began to think about why I was hurt, I poured out my heart to God,(Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.  Psalm 62:8) “I feel hurt.  I feel unimportant.  I feel of little value.  I feel insignificant.  I want to be heard.  I want to be understood.  I want to be known.  Are my thoughts/feelings not worth something?  Am I not worth listening to?”  I had somewhere along the way in my life made the false assumption that if people listened to me, then I was important, but if people didn’t listen to me, then I was not important.  Because of this false belief, I have looked to people to make me feel significant.  On this evening, I read this paraphrase of Psalm 139:

I know you-when you sit down and get up, what you think.  I carefully watch over you as you move through your day and then sleep at night.  I am intimately acquainted with everything about you. 

Through this, God told me that I’m important; I’m special; He knows me; He pays attention to me.  He is the one who deems me significant, not other people.  If I look to people to be heard, be understood, be known, I will be disappointed and hurt, but if I look to God, I see that I have everything I need in Him.

Rebecca:-)

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