Hearing and speaking

Moreover He said to me: "Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,' whether they hear, or whether they refuse." – Ezekiel 3.10-11

God knows the heart of men. He knows that we tend to get discouraged when it seems like what we are doing is a failure. God spent a lot of time making sure that Ezekiel had a proper perspective of what he was doing. It is perspective that we would all do well to grasp.

Here’s the plan. We listen to what God says with our ears, we apply it to our hearts, we tell it to others, and then we leave it up to them. They can accept it or reject it – but we have done our part.

Of course it is not that simple and that sounds kind of harsh. It doesn’t mean we do our bit and then ignore them. It does mean that we are faithful and then we leave the results up to God. We can’t hols ourselves to standards us success if we are listening to God and sharing Him with others.

So we keep spending time and listening to God. That we can do. We keep telling other about Him. We can do that. We keep loving people no matter how they respond. We can do that.

Then we have to leave the rest with God.