Shema: Learning to not just listen, but to respond

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. – Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Shema is an ancient Hebrew word that in modern-day English means to listen and hear. The Shema began as a daily prayer for the ancient Israelites and continues to be recited today. It is first seen in Deuteronomy 6, and then later Jewish tradition included Deuteronomy 11:13-29 and Numbers 15:37-41 to create a three-part prayer.

I had never heard of this until one Sunday in February when I learned about it twice, in two different churches. In the months since it has become a practice I reflect on and try to live out daily.

In this passage shared, Moses is addressing the new generation of Israel as they are preparing to enter the promised land, to learn to listen and learn to love God above everything else.

The word “hear” at the beginning of the passage does not simply mean to listen to what the Lord is saying, but to actually work to comprehend, and live out what we are being called to do, obeying. In order to have a relationship with God that is both hands and heart, we need to listen to Him with radical priority. This means that when we take space, we must have a desire to hear what He has to say, and willingness to learn. The next step is to take what we have heard and step out in courage and bold faith to respond. As it says in

James 1:22, “do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

The prayer is so important that hundreds of years later Jesus answered the question of what the greatest commandment was by beginning with quoting the Shema itself.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” – Mark 12:29-30

Jesus showed that this call to love God with our whole being wasn’t just for the past—it’s still what we’re meant to live by today.

When I first started testing this out, it took a while to learn how God was speaking to me. It can look different for everyone! At first I sat at my kitchen table hoping that physical words would be spoken, clear as day. I soon learned that wasn’t how He was going to share. I had to be patient in order to feel the nudge that God was calling me to. At first, I ignored those nudges, taking days to reach out to people that I felt like I should. For example, I accidentally took four days to text a friend I felt I should reach out to, which then became a fruitful conversation once I actually did it. I am now working towards and seeing the fruit from obeying God’s will immediately when I notice that nudge.

What would it look like to practice the Shema prayer today? To not just listen to God’s voice, but to actually respond and obey?

My hope and prayer is that as we learn to listen, that we trust that God is always speaking with purpose. May we all have hearts tuned in to His responses and the courage to respond.