Listening to God

Often we think that prayer requires that we fill silent space with words. But, if prayer is a dialogue, then it requires that we not only speak, but listen. John Mark Comer even suggests that “the desire to hear God’s voice in prayer is a spirit-generated desire in the heart of a disciple of Jesus.” But we live in what C.S. Lewis calls a “noise-filled world” so the question becomes, how do we hear the voice of God? The story of Samuel models both a prayer and posture for us: “Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening.” Sometimes prayer doesn’t require us to fill the silence with our words, but to still our voice and listen for God to speak. In a similar way, Jesus teaches that we must as sheep listen for the voice of the shepherd. When we do so, we’ll find that God is there to not only speak to us, but to guide and shape our lives.