Proverbs 4:20-21. 20My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.
A good son or daughter pays attention to their father’s wisdom. That’s what this proverb is telling us. Solomon wants his children to pay attention to everything he’s telling them in this book. Pay attention to me so that you can gain the wisdom of God.
What do you pay attention to? What gets your attention in your free time? Social media? The news? Entertainment? Sports? Video games? Pornography? Gossip? The voices inside your head telling you that you’re not enough? Memories of past failures? Predictions of future troubles?
What we pay attention to is one of the most important things about us. Neuroscience tells us that what we pay attention to can literally change our brains. Paying attention is a matter of life and death, literally. It’s also the difference between the good life of God and the bad life of shame.
What did Jesus pay attention to? We can put the words of this proverb into the mouth of our Heavenly Father and hear them spoken to Christ the Son. Jesus, the Son of God, was completely attentive to his Father’s words. Jesus inclined his ear to the Father’s sayings. Christ kept the words of the Father in his sight and within his heart. Therefore, everything he did and all that he spoke was from the Father. Here’s how Jesus himself said it:
John 12:49-50. 49For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
In Christ, we too are sons of God. The question is, are we paying attention to our Father’s words? More importantly, are we keeping them in our hearts? What is the Father saying to us? I love you. I am with you. I will never give up on you. I am proud of you. I want you to know me just like I know you. You can trust me. Will you trust me?
How do we hear the Father? By hearing his written word and his living Word, Christ, the Son. We hear the Father by hearing the gospel of his grace. And not only the literal words or facts, but the story it tells. The picture it paints that we must never let escape our sight, and keep in our hearts.
Hear the gospel over and over (be attentive). Trust the gospel (keep it in your heart).
Paying attention to the gospel WILL transform your heart. It will change what you care about. It will change how you see yourself, your situation, everything. When we listen to Jesus (incline your ear) and look at Jesus on the cross (let them not escape from your sight), when we hear and see the love of God in Christ, it lets us know just how loved we are by God, and just how much we can trust a God that loves us as much as he does his Son.
You: What things steal your attention away from the gospel?
You in Christ: In what ways can you see your heart changing as you pay attention to the love of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Christ in you: How can you keep the gospel before you on a daily basis?
Pray: Father, I want to pay attention to you. I want to hear and see Christ. Change my heart by your written word and the living Word in me. Amen.
To Live is Christ 