What We Want to Hear vs. What We Need to Hear

What We Want to Hear or What We Need to Hear

Pastor Calvin Cook

February 6, 2026

I am reading a book that is a compilation from various writers and theologians on what relationship with God might look like. The perspective from each person has been interesting to say the least. Prayerfully and hopefully through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the practice of spiritual disciplines of prayer, reading and studying scripture, holy conversations or fellowship, and a focus on God will bring me and actually this is my prayer for all of us to the place we need to be in our relationship and walk with God.

One of the particular contributions to these series of essays and writings began with this statement: “This is what you need to hear and know.”  As I read through the paragraphs there were some statements that I agreed with and some that I did not. I prayerfully considered are we more focused on hearing and being guided by what God’s word says or do we read it so that we will have something to debate. Are we being guided by the Holy Spirit’s power and working or by some other theory or belief that has become Gospel to us.  We do what believe is right but is what we do and what we hear part of what God desires us to know. There is a difference between knowing and hearing.

I think there is tension sometimes very quiet tension sometimes very loud tension in an honest walk with God. One that is not guided or even adultered by anything else. In considering this there is great difference between what we want to hear and what we need to hear and the next thought is even more cumbersome in our lives: there is a difference between what we need to do and what we actually do.

What we want to hear often sounds comforting, affirming, and familiar. It tells us we’re doing just fine. Being just ok does not really require the changes we need to make and that I believe God is calling us, His people and certainly His church to. Religion causes us to fit neatly into our current beliefs and routines. What we want to hear usually is about what our preferences are, what we fear, and most always the excuses we make for why we can’t move closer and further on down the pathway in this relationship and in drawing nearer to God.

What we need to hear comes from a deeper place—the heart of God. And what God speaks is always shaped by what He wants us to believe, know, and trust.

God speaks so that we would believe the truth, not the version of reality shaped by our our own preferences, emotions and circumstances. Scripture reminds us that faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). Sometimes that word will challenge lies we’ve lived with for years. God may confront our misplaced confidence or expose where we’ve settled for less than His promises. What we need to hear may unsettle us but in the end should bring us great satisfaction.  It is like building a house, the many hours to get it just right, the labor, the pain, the cost – you will not be satisfied until you sit in the living room in the comfort of something you completed or worked hard to attain.

God speaks so that we would know Him, not just know about Him.  “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). What we need to hear often calls us to slow down, to listen beyond the noise, and to recognize God’s presence in places we’ve overlooked. Knowledge of God reshapes how we see ourselves and the world around us.

God also speaks so that we would trust Him. Trust is forged not when life is easy, but when God’s word asks us to step forward without seeing the whole path. Proverbs 3:5 urge us to trust in the Lord with all our heart, leaning not on our own understanding. What we need to hear may stretch our faith, invite surrender, and require obedience before clarity.

Left to ourselves, we will always gravitate toward what is easier to hear and do. But the call of God is speaking what is necessary for God’s mission to be lived out. What is necessary for growth, healing, and transformation. God’s voice may convict, redirect, or call us to repentance, but it never does so without grace. His words may be firm, but they are always faithful. I also want to say that many times this becomes a very lonely place to be as those who you have believed would stand with you, desert you and move on to an easier way.

So today, pause and ask a brave question in prayer:

“Lord, am I listening only for what I want to hear or am I open to what You know I need to hear?”

God’s word will always lead you toward deeper belief, truer knowledge, and stronger trust. And in the end, what we need to hear is what shapes us into who we were always meant to become.

In closing – I just want to encourage you to take your burdens to the Lord – Jesus is calling for you to do that right now. Yoke yourself with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and trust in believe through faithful surrender that God will make a way. (Matthew 11:28-30)