Tired of the Spiritual Roller Coaster? The Answer Is Hearkening

Do you sometimes feel like your walk with God is a spiritual roller coaster — full of highs and lows, with the downs coming a whole lot faster than the ups? In this episode of the Confidence in God podcast, host Julie McGhghy uncovers a powerful gold nugget hidden in Psalm 81:8-9 that holds the key to getting off that ride for good.

Julie dives deep into the difference between hearing God's Word and truly hearkening to it — and why that distinction makes all the difference in keeping God first in your life. Through Scripture, including the story of Samuel's growth from simply hearing to fully hearkening, you'll discover how to move from inconsistency to a confident, steady walk with God.

Resources: 

Walking with Confidence 

Understanding God's Expectations 

Episode Timeline: Total Time 17:26

 | Timestamp | Section 

| 0:00 | Introduction — Welcome & podcast goal
| 0:13 | The Roller Coaster Analogy — Do you love roller coasters?
| 0:57 | The Spiritual Roller Coaster — Up and down walk with God
| 1:47 | Episode Overview — Gold nuggets in Scripture; 3-part series intro
| 2:38 | Previous Episodes Referenced — Love & Protection; Guilt & Shame
| 3:26 | Psalm 81:8-9 — The if/then statement introduced
| 3:51 | Breaking Down the Promise — If you hearken, then no strange gods
| 4:06 | Applies to Christians — Romans 11:11-21; grafted into the tree
| 4:47 | Strange Gods Today — Career, money, family, comfort; enmity (Romans 8:6)
| 6:00 | The Gold Nugget — Hearkening keeps God first
| 6:33 | Defining "Hearken" — Hebrew definitions explored
| 6:47 | Hearing Only — Prophecies & parables (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Mark 4)
| 7:08 | Hearing & Obeying — Abraham, Samuel (1 Samuel 15:22)
| 7:40 | Hearing & Understanding — Solomon (1 Kings 3:9); Jesus in Mark 7
| 8:21 | Which Kind of Hearkening Is the Key? — Revisiting Psalm 81
| 9:17 | Hearing Only Is Not Enough
| 10:47 | Samuel's Story — From hearing only to hearkening (1 Samuel 3:3-11)
| 12:07 | The Lesson from Samuel — Connect with a teacher; hear, then obey
| 12:39 | Recap — From hearing to hearkening; getting off the roller coaster
| 13:46 | Looking Ahead — Next episode; reflection challenge
| 14:31 | Closing Prayer
 

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Hello, and welcome to the Confidence in God podcast. I am your host, Julie McGhghy, and our goal today is to help you walk with confidence in God.

Speaker 0:13

Do you love roller coasters? Do you get a thrill as you slowly climb that first big hill and then drop over it in increasing speed that usually enters into a sharp turn at the bottom, leading to another climb using the momentum the ride picked up as it sped down that first hill? Oh, how I remember the days when I loved roller coasters and spent hours in lines at amusement parks just to spend one and a half to three minutes on each of the roller coasters. It seems silly now, and oh, so long ago.

Speaker 0:57

Do you sometimes feel like your walk with God is a roller coaster? Remember first receiving salvation? How it seemed like a long climb, and then it happened, and you sped along with enthusiasm, sharing the news with everyone who would listen. Then came the turn and the realization that your Christian walk is not always the hilltop experience. And over time, you found yourself going up and down in your relationship with God, often resulting in disappointment in yourself for not being able to walk consistently with God, and even feeling like God must be disappointed in you also. Eventually, you no longer enjoy the thrill of the roller coaster.

Speaker 1:47

As is obvious by the title, and as I state at the beginning of each episode, the goal of this podcast is to help you walk with confidence in God. To do that, I often pick out gold nuggets in Scripture to illustrate how to walk consistently with our Lord, always growing in relationship with Him. In today's episode, and throughout the next two episodes, I will be illuminating some of those gold nuggets to help you put a stop to the roller coaster ride. Although I have not used the term or analogy of a roller coaster ride in prior episodes, you will find a thread of consistency throughout many of the episodes, again, to help you find the keys to walking consistently and confidently in God. Before we start getting into today's episode, I draw your attention to a couple of our previous episodes that you might find helpful if you struggle with an inconsistent walk with God and thoughts of disappointing Him. Walking With Confidence in God's Love and Protection illustrates God's protective nature and highlights verses that show how God continually guides and supports you so that you don't have to be on that spiritual roller coaster. And Understanding God's Expectations: Letting Go of Guilt and Shame will reassure you that you cannot disappoint God. I'll drop links to both of these episodes in the show notes.

Speaker 3:26

Let's get started by reading a psalm that contains an if/then statement. Psalm 81:8-9, "Hear, O my people; and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god."

Speaker 3:51

Did you hear the if/then statement? If you will hearken to me, then there shall no strange god be in you, and neither will you worship any strange god.

Speaker 4:06

Note that Asaph wrote this psalm in God's voice speaking to Israel. It may be tempting to disregard it as not applying to Christians because we are not a part of Israel. But if you take that position, you are doing a disservice to the Word of God and to yourself because Romans 11:11-21 tells us we are grafted into the tree of life where the branches of Israel were broken off by unbelief. So we are his people, and this psalm applies to us.

Speaker 4:47

How is this if/then statement a gold nugget that helps us get off that spiritual rollercoaster? Are we sometimes consumed by strange gods? Well, we don't think so. Yet, when we are pursuing things such as career, money, family, material comforts, and even recreation more earnestly than we are pursuing God, we are worshiping strange gods, being consumed with things that we elevate above God. This is being carnally minded, and it is enmity against God according to Romans 8:6.

Speaker 5:29

Enmity is a deep hatred. When we become consumed by these other things, we risk developing a deep hatred toward God. None of us want to stray from God, and we certainly don't want to be so distracted by other things that we elevate above Him, making us vulnerable to developing this deep hatred toward Him and His calling in our lives.

Speaker 6:00

Psalm 81:8-9 gives us the key, the golden nugget, to successfully keeping God first in our lives. If we hearken to Him, we will not be consumed by other distractions, and we will not worship those distractions. This is an important key that I want to live by. In order to live by it, I must understand it.

Speaker 6:27

So let's look more deeply into what it means to hearken. There are many definitions for hearken in the original Hebrew language of the Psalms. They range widely from having the power or the ability to hear God to being attentive to Him and obeying Him. When used in prophecies such as in 2 Kings 7:1 and 2 Chronicles 18:18, or in parables like the parable of the sower in Mark 4:1-20, no action is required. Only the ability to hear was necessary.

Speaker 7:08

Then we find the same word in Genesis 22:18, where God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and in 1 Samuel 15:22, where Samuel explained that obedience to God's word is more pleasing to God than sacrifice. In the context of these two scriptures, to please God and to receive the promises of God requires more than just hearing His word, but also obeying it.

Speaker 7:40

The same word is also used within the context of hearing and understanding. In 1 Kings 3:9, King Solomon asked God for an understanding heart using that same word. The Amplified Version of that verse translates it to understanding mind and a hearing heart. When Jesus was explaining what defiles a man in Mark 7:14-16, He also paired together hearing and understanding when he said, "Hearken unto me ... and understand." So hearkening to God's word connotes hearing and understanding it.

Speaker 8:22

We're focused on what it means to hearken unto God and His Word because we want to unlock the key to successfully keeping God first in our lives. When Asaph proclaimed God's goodness to Israel in Psalm 81, he included the promise, if we will hearken unto God, then we will not be consumed by other gods in our lives, and we will not worship them. We are consumed by other gods in our lives and worship them when we pursue them more greatly than we pursue God. By looking at these scriptures, we see that although hearkening may be used to connote merely hearing the word, as in a prophecy or parable, it may also mean hearing and obeying or understanding God's Word. Well, which of these is the key to successfully keeping God first in our lives?

Speaker 9:17

In the prophecies we read in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, God, through the prophets, was merely informing His people regarding what was coming. It was not necessary that the people obey or even understand. God was merely making them aware.

Speaker 9:35

Is it good to be consistent in hearing God's Word? Yes. Absolutely yes. We generally hear God's Word through church attendance. If we are hearing only, we are generally not spending private time in the Word or in prayer. We are only attending church. Is church attendance enough to keep us from pursuing other things in life more earnestly than we pursue God? Not generally.

Speaker 10:05

We all know many people who have attended church regularly. They may have attended for many years, yet they didn't pursue God outside of church. Generally, these people hear God's Word. They are aware of it, yet they don't pursue Him. Many of these people succumb to the distractions of life, and eventually, even their church attendance becomes haphazard, and we see them only at holidays or special occasions. Church attendance alone, being aware of God's Word alone, is not enough to keep Him first in our lives. It is not enough to unlock His promises and blessings.

Speaker 10:47

Let's not lose heart about those among us who are merely attending church and are not yet earnestly pursuing God in their private times. When God called Samuel, as recorded in 1 Samuel 3:3-11, while he was sleeping, Samuel heard the voice and he thought it was Eli. After Samuel ran to Eli three times and he proclaimed, "Here I am, for you called me," Eli recognized that the Lord was calling Samuel, and he instructed Samuel on how to respond to God.

Speaker 11:21

Prior to this event, Samuel was ministering to the Lord through Eli, so he was aware of God and His Word. He was faithful, but he was hearing only. He did not recognize God's voice. In fact, although verses 3 through 8 refer to Samuel hearing the voice, it does not use the same word for hearken used in Psalm 81 and these other verses that we've looked at. Samuel was not hearkening. He was hearing only. Eventually, through persistence, repeatedly going to Eli for instructions, and obedience, responding the way Eli instructed, Samuel hearkened unto the Lord. This was the beginning of Samuel's growth into becoming a prophet.

Speaker 12:13

So we learn from Samuel that being in a place to hear God's Word is the starting point. However, we must connect with a teacher, one who will instruct us in hearing God's voice. We must also do as the teacher says. That is when hearing becomes hearkening. That is when we unlock the key to successfully keeping God first in our lives.

Speaker 12:39

This was a lot of information differentiating between hearing and hearkening in order to unwrap that gold nugget to help us consistently walk with God. I'll briefly recap it. It is good to be in God's house regularly and to hear His Word, like the people who listened to the Old Testament prophecies and the perils of Jesus. We have to be where we can hear His Word in order to grow in our walk with God, just as Samuel did, growing from hearing only to hearkening by not only hearing it, but also understanding and obeying it.

Speaker 13:18

As Asaph wrote in Psalm 81, if we hearken to God, then there will be no strange god in us, and we will not worship any strange god. In other words, as we hearken to God's Word, we will not pursue other things more earnestly than we pursue God, making us vulnerable to developing enmity or that deep hatred against God. We can get off the spiritual roller coaster.

Speaker 13:46

There is much more to learn about hearkening. In the next episode, we will look at other consequences of hearkening or not hearkening unto God. Between now and then, please consider and pray about where you are in your walk with God and whether you are hearkening unto God by hearing only, hearing and understanding, or hearing and obeying. If you are struggling with a roller coaster ride relationship with God, up and down, up and down, with down being a whole lot faster than up, then you need to activate this key of keeping God first in your life. Ask God to help you hearken more fully to the Lord.

Speaker 14:31

Oh, precious Jesus, we come to you, and we thank you for this precious gold nugget in Scripture. We thank you that, for this promise, this if-then statement. If we will hearken unto you, then these things will not enter into our lives, and we thank you for that. Help us to keep our minds and our hearts on that for the next week or two. Really speak to us as we, we strive to understand it, as we strive to more diligently pursue you over the things of this world and just the things in life generally. We praise you that we can depend on you to do that because you are faithful. We thank you that you, you ask us to bring our supplications, our needs to you, precious Jesus, and we know that you care for us. In your precious holy name, amen.

Speaker 15:27

Now, as I mentioned earlier, if you struggle with feeling like you are on a spiritual rollercoaster or that you disappoint God, I invite you to check out two prior episodes of the podcast, Walking With Confidence in God's Love and Protection, which illustrates God's protective nature and highlights verses that show how He continually guides and supports you so that you don't have to be on that spiritual rollercoaster, and Understanding God's Expectations: Letting Go of Guilt and Shame, which will reassure you that you cannot disappoint God. I'll drop links to both of these episodes in the show notes.

Speaker 16:08

That's it for today. I hope you found this episode helpful, and that you will join me again in two weeks to learn more about the consequences of hearkening or not hearkening unto God. If you found the episode helpful, please take a second to subscribe to our show so you'll be notified when future episodes come out. Feel free to share it with your friends and loved ones, as well as rating or reviewing it so more people can find out about it.

Speaker 16:38

I would really love to hear from you. Let me know where you are in your walk with God, and whether you find yourself simply hearing God's Word or if you have learned to hearken to it, and share some examples with me.

Speaker 16:53

I so appreciate those of you who have contacted me with your prayer requests. Please know that I pray for you daily. If you need prayer, please reach out to me and let me support you in prayer. Also, as you experience the answers to those prayers you've shared with me, please share your praise report with me. I want to rejoice with you also.

Speaker 17:16

Until next time, let's be confident in this, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.