Listen and Act

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. – Ecclesiastes 5:1

A man by the name of Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. And in that book, he was saying that all that you do for God and with God is serious business, so you had better be serious about what you choose to do.

Then he tells us how to do serious business with God and what that looks like practically as followers of Jesus. So over the next couple of days, we are going to look at Solomon’s instructions and learn more about how to take care of business with God. Let’s look at one way now and then we’ll look at two more ways tomorrow.

The first way to take care of business with God is to be discreet entering the presence of God. Solomon very clearly says in today’s key passage that you are to “draw near to listen.” The word “listen” doesn’t mean just to hear. The word literally means “to hear and act on what you hear.”

As you enter into God’s presence, your ears should be saying, “I am here today to listen to the truth God has for me.” Your mind should be saying, “I am here today to learn the truth God has for me.” Your heart should be saying, “I am going to walk out of here and live the truth God gave me today.” That’s the kind of posture we should all have when we are in the presence of God.

I encourage you to practice this posture as you sit in God’s presence today. And then come back tomorrow as we continue this discussion on taking care of business with God.  

Dear Lord, thank you for this reminder of how important it is to listen to you. Help me not only to listen to what you say but also to act on it. In Jesus’ name, amen.