If you want to hear a speaker better, don’t you try to get closer and you move forward through the crowd?  Others may bump you or push past you, or you may do that to others.  It takes work getting around the person in front of you, then the next and the next until you can hear and see clearly.

(NASB) Luke 5:1 “NOW IT happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret;”

Men and women were in that crowd: fishermen, carpenters, home makers, lawyers, soldiers, bakers, religious leaders…many people from every strata of Jewish society.
These people were pressing in and around Jesus.  They were listening intently to Him as He taught the word of God.

How do you respond when God’s true word is spoken?  Do you “press” in…“listening” intently…and “receiving” God’s truths?

Pressing in:
People who are pressing in and are listening intently deserve all of God’s words ~ the warnings as well as the promises.  God’s love does that!  God’s love is all encompassing.  In His compassion and mercy He gives us warnings about wrong thinking, wrong actions and wrong motives.

Listening:
When we listen to God’s word, whether from another or by reading the Holy Bible ourselves, if we listen carefully and intently we will hear what pleases God.  Putting God’s word into action in our lives is important.

Receiving:
(NASB) Proverbs 2:1-5 “MY SON, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you,
2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
3 For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
4 If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
5 then you will discern the fear of the LORD
And discover the knowledge of God.”

 

Are you eagerly pressing in, listening intently and receiving God’s word into your life?