If you’re not familiar with the word Shema, it’s both the name of an ancient Jewish prayer and a Hebrew term with a very specific meaning. Jewish families pray the Shema at night before bed and again first thing in the morning, reminding themselves that God alone is Lord and He deserves all their love and obedience.
It comes straight from Deuteronomy 6:4–5, where Moses shares a message with the new generation of Israel who would finally enter the promised land.
The prayer begins with “Hear, O Israel,” but the word hear here is not just about sound hitting your eardrums. The Hebrew word is shema, which means to hear with the intention of responding. It means the words sink in, produce understanding, and lead to action.
This is important, because Moses wasn’t simply giving Israel information. He was calling them to live a life of listening, loving, and obeying God fully.
In Hebrew, there’s no separation between hearing and doing. The word shema means both at the same time. When God says “hear,” He is saying “hear and act.” Even in Psalm 34:17, when it says the Lord hears the cry of the righteous, the word again is shema, showing that God hears and responds.
Deuteronomy 11:13 makes this even clearer. Most English translations say “if you earnestly obey,” but literally it would read, “if hearing you will hear.” Hearing without doing simply isn’t a category in Hebrew thought. To hear is to act.
This isn’t just an Old Testament idea. Jesus quotes the Shema in Mark 12:29–30 when a scribe asks which command is the greatest. He says, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one,” and then follows it with the command to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
The scribe recognizes immediately that Jesus knows exactly what He’s talking about, because the Shema was at the center of Jewish life.
Jesus wasn’t just quoting familiar scripture. He was reinforcing the same truth Moses taught: hearing and obeying God cannot be separated. When Jesus tells the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God,” it’s because the scribe genuinely wanted to understand rather than trap Him.
Most of us know the parable in Matthew 7:24–27 about the wise man who builds his house on the rock. But in the Greek, the word for hear is akouō, which is the same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for shema. Jesus is again saying that hearing is doing.
The house stands because the man hears and obeys. The house falls because the man hears but does not act.
It is never the hearing that saves you; it’s hearing with obedience.
If you’ve ever read James, you know he doesn’t mince words. He writes, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22–24). He compares someone who hears without obeying to a person who looks in the mirror and immediately forgets what they look like. It’s not complicated. It’s simply incomplete hearing.
Then in James 2:17 he writes, “So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead.” Works aren’t about earning anything. They are “actions of obedience to back it up,” just like the Amplified translation says. Faith without obedience simply won’t produce anything.
If your walk with God feels inoperative or powerless, the issue is rarely God. It’s usually that we’ve heard Him but haven’t acted on what He already said.
Every believer wants to “hear God better,” but often the problem isn’t that we can’t hear. The problem is that we haven’t done the last thing He told us. Anyone who has raised kids knows the routine: “Put your shoes away. Put your shoes away. Put your shoes away.” No parent keeps giving new instructions when the first one hasn’t been done.
God doesn’t operate differently. If He trusted you with something and you didn’t obey, He’ll wait. He’s patient, but He’s also purposeful.
I’ve seen this in parenting and even in ministry. When people prove themselves faithful with small instructions, you naturally trust them with more. The same is true with God.
We’ve all had that friend who asks for advice but only wants you to agree with what they already decided. The truth is that many of us do that with God. We pray asking for guidance, but what we’re really looking for is a divine stamp of approval on our own plan.
That’s not hearing. That’s not obedience. And it’s definitely not the way to build a life on the rock.
Once God speaks, the only right response is to shema — to hear and obey.
If obedience feels overwhelming, start small. Ask God simple questions throughout the day and do what He shows you. Sometimes He might lead you to take a different route to work or cook a certain meal. Sometimes He’ll nudge you to encourage someone who needs it. The more you practice, the more natural it becomes.
In Revelation 2–3, Jesus repeatedly says, “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.” The word refers again to hearing and obeying — not just collecting information. This is where the Spirit moves. This is where provision comes from. This is where guidance becomes clear.
Obedience positions you under God’s direction and makes you unbeatable because you’re walking in what He told you to do.
