Mar
31
2012
Listening Prayer
Posted in Prayer 6 Comments
Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue; God’s voice is its most essential part. Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine. – Andrew Murray
Many people have little to say, but it takes a long time for them to say it.
We tend to fill awkward pauses in our conversations with meaningless words instead of allowing the pauses to speak for themselves.
As a culture, we don’t like silence because it says too much.
Silence leaves us alone with our thoughts and feelings.
Silence makes us uncomfortable.
Did you ever stop and listen to the volume of our culture?
Travelers must listen to information concerning arrivals, departures, and cancellations.
Shoppers must listen to announcements about the best bargains.
Commercials on television are much louder than the actual program.
We never seem to be bothered by these loud intrusions.
We have been conditioned to accept the volume of our lives.
This cacophony of sound, society’s white noise, becomes a dissonant din.
That din makes it difficult for us to distinguish the important from the unimportant.
The volume is the same.
Observe the next time the power goes out in your home.
We never notice the hum of the refrigerator until we are forced to pay attention to the silence.
Silence affects prayer as well.
We talk and talk to God.
We give Him our lists and tell Him what we want Him to do about it.
As a loving Father, He loves to hear the voices of His children.
He never minds our persistence.
He wants us to come to Him with everything and talk to Him about it.
Yet, we should never monopolize the conversation.
That is what we tend to do in prayer.
We forget that, in a conversation, one person is speaking and one is listening.
We have lost the art of listening prayer.
We seem to be afraid to sit quietly in God’s presence and allow Him to speak.
We fill the pauses of our prayer conversation with endless words.
We need to allow His sovereign silence to speak.
When we are overwhelmed, we stand silent before Him.
We should be encouraged since the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. (Romans 8:26)
When we are silent, God’s Spirit is not.
When we are challenged in our faith, or someone catches us off guard, God’s Word tells us do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
(Mark 13:11)
There is a time to be silent and a time to speak. (Ecclesiastes 3:7)
We will have pauses in our prayer conversations.
Rest in them.
Listen to them.
We don’t have to be afraid of the silence because God is there.
Silence in the prescence of God is a difficult thing to master and yet a most worthy pursuit. To hear His voice is more important and more valuable than to hear my own! And so it is, me diminishing and Him becoming known.
Thank you for reminding me that His voice is the one I want to hear!
Cinda,
As we walk together in Bible study and in friendship, let’s encourage each other to listen for His voice.
Amen to that!
Janna,
How patient the Father is…with all of our words !!!
This is a great reminder. Thanks mom! I love you!
Claire,
I love you, too.
I love the privilege of listening to your heart…as we both listen to Him.
MOM