Focused Attention

If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear. Mark 4:23

Pay attention to my voice above the clamour of the voices on the earth right now. Tune your ears to hear.  Take time to draw aside, to shut the door on the demands for your attention, on the demands for your time.  Take time and come and sit with me and listen attentively to my voice. 

Draw aside with me.  Invest yourself in my voice, in really listening.  There is a significant difference between just hearing a sound and listening to it.  Do not allow my voice to become background noise. Do not allow my voice to get drowned out in all the other noise. 

This is a time for focussed attention to my words.  This is a time for attention to the detail of my words.  Where my words have become overfamiliar, listen again.  Allow me to reveal fresh insight as you read, as you listen to my words with open ears.  Allow my words to take root in new ways.

Consider carefully what you hear, he continued.  With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more.  Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.  Mark 4:24-25 (NIV)

Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” 

He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.  But to those on the outside everything is said in parables.”  Mark 4:9, 11 (NIV)

Activation

Ask God for creative ways to read the bible with fresh eyes, especially where it has become overfamiliar.  Ask him to help you be aware and focus on what you are reading / hearing.  Try reading a different version of the bible or reading it in another way – out loud, sitting in a different place, in a physical Bible instead of digitally.