Listen
Today marks the beginning of the final week in my 40 days of prayer. I have been asking God how He wants to use me in His church. I will continue to seek His will this week, but I will be doing far more listening than talking.Quietly listening comes hard to most of us; it's not easy for me either. It's something we have to learn. Many of us, intentionally or not, surround ourselves with noise, drowning out our Master's voice. Yesterday in class, Aaron played a video on the subject for us. Partway through, the screen went to black and there was a long period of (uncomfortable) silence before words began appearing. When asked later how we felt about this, one class member said she was okay once there was something to read, but the dark screen and silent classroom made her very uneasy. Most people nodded in agreement.
When Satan invented the iPod, he knew how easy it would make it for us to be plugged in, distracted, all day long. The DVR and cell phone come from the same bag of tricks. But I have spent 33 days asking God the same question. His answers have already come, in a variety of ways. But I find that they change and grow each day. Some answers I thought I knew have been turned completely around.
Now it's time to simply be quiet and listen. If I pray for clarity, then I must trust that He will give it to me, that by Sunday I will know the direction in which to start travelling. And if I ask Him a question, it's only right that I should pay attention to the answer.
posted by Thurman8er @ 7:43 AM
6 Comments:
I think the hardest thing to do is to heed God's words, "Be still and know that I am God." Sometimes, we talk God to death, but the challenge is to clear the mind of all requests and cares and just LISTEN after saying, "Dear God, take control..."
Answers come in His time.
This sort of reminds me of some songs...remember the amazing hymn from "The Color Purple"? "God's Tryin' To Tell You Somethin'"? ("...Speak to me...") That song moves me to tears every time I hear it.
We have become a people (and you see it in school everyday Math Bro) that needs something to fill our every moment. My prayers and hopes are with you as you enter your final week of prayer.
What ever the outcome God has and will be glorified.
God bless as you listen. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
You can count on prayers from Seattle. Peace be with you, my friend in the computer.
It is difficult to simply be quiet and listen. I like walking with my iPod but perhaps there are times I need to walk without it and be in prayer with God, listening to Him.
I hope you don't mind but I quoted some of this post in my most recent post at my blogsite. It is so important that we all learn to listen, without distraction to our Master's voice.
Thank you for the reminder.
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