During the summers of my childhood, I spent a great deal of time with my grandparents. As I mentioned earlier, my grandparents on my father’s side were both deaf and unable to speak. In the Soviet Union during the 1980s, there was very little technology available for people with hearing disabilities, so my grandmother was especially attentive whenever hearing was important. 

For example, when someone rang the doorbell, a light above the front door would flash instead of a bell ringing. That was how she knew someone had arrived. When my cousins and I watched television, she could tell the volume was too loud simply by placing her hand on the wooden kitchen table in another room. She felt the vibrations and would come in to ask us to turn it down. Whenever we children talked together, she carefully watched our lips and facial expressions to understand what we were saying. Every now and then, she would say a few words, and we would all laugh together. 

Knowing her limitations, she did everything she could to avoid missing what mattered most. The most important moment of her life was one she did not miss. I still remember the day Jesus knocked on the door of her heart—and she heard His voice.

In Mark’s Gospel, we hear Jesus speak a single word: “Ephphatha!”—“Be opened!” Here we see a miracle of physical healing. But when we understand the heart of God, we also see His desire to heal us of something even deeper—our spiritual deafness.

Only a few verses later, Jesus asks His disciples: “Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?” (Mark 8:18, NIV). The contrast is striking. One man was physically deaf, while the disciples were spiritually deaf. If we are honest, we often struggle with the same problem. 

The greatest deafness is not physical; it is spiritual. We can hear sermons every Sunday and read the Bible every day, yet still fail to hear what God is saying to us today. We often ask God to open doors—for our family, our business, our ministry, or our future. But perhaps today we should ask Him to speak over our hearts the same word He spoke to that man: “Ephphatha!”— “Be opened.”

God wants to open more than our ears. He wants to open our eyes to recognize His presence and our hearts to respond to His love with obedience.

My grandmother searched for every possible way to avoid missing an important sound. What helps you hear God’s voice?

Practice: Before you open your Bible or begin to pray today, pause for one minute and pray: “Lord, open my heart. Help me hear what You want to say to me today.” Read Scripture slowly, asking, “What is God saying to me personally today?”

Prayer: Lord, open my ears to hear Your voice. Open my heart so I will not only hear You but also faithfully follow You. Amen.