Auditory Processing Problems

I’ve been wondering how often I have a ’spiritual auditory processing difficulty’.  On a physical level, such a difficulty describes a condition where the brain fails to process sounds properly, even though hearing is normal.  One of the resulting problems (there are several) is an inability to filter out less important, background sounds and concentrate on what psychologists call the ‘target sound’.

In John 10, Jesus says that His sheep hear His voice.  Surely that should be the ‘target sound’, however much background noise there may be.  The background noise will vary from time to time and from person to person, but I think it will always be there while we live in this sinful world.

How vital, then, whenever I read God’s word, or hear it read, meditate on it, or hear it preached, that I do so with my ‘ears attentive to the Book of the Law’ (Nehemiah 8:3) and longing that the gracious Holy Spirit will both open my mind to understand and incline my will to obey.

Break Thou the Bread of Life,

Dear Lord, to me,

As Thou didst break the bread

Beside the sea.

Beyond the sacred page

I seek Thee, Lord;

My spirit pants for Thee,

O living Word!

                             M A Lathbury 

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.   James 1:22

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.  For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success   Joshua 1:8