The Prayer Practice - Listening to God
Readings for this week July 24 - 28
Click here for a pdf of this week’s readings
Day 1 – Listening to God
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – John 10:2-3
We have talked to God, talked with God, and this week we move on to listening to God. Now, while the outline of prayer we are going through is not linear, we do often only learn to listen to God after we’ve done a lot of talking ourselves, whether with the words of others or our own. But for many people, the idea of listening to God is a foreign one. Perhaps they get ‘stuck’ on talking to God; or maybe listening to God is only attempted when there is a big issue or decision facing them that they need guidance on. Yet at the heart of discipleship is a relationship. Whatever we may learn regarding doctrine and theology and ritual and transformation, it is this relationship that Jesus offers us that is the key part of being a disciple. As he says, those who are truly his sheep will “know his voice” and will “follow it.”
A relationship in which the communication is all (or significantly) one way is not much of a relationship. You don’t learn much about the other person – and certainly not at a deep, intimate level – if you never take the time to listen to them. It is the same with God. If we do not deliberately spend time seeking his presence, listening for his voice, and discerning what he says and what his will for us is, we won’t become attuned to his voice and we won’t get to know him – and his love for us and his love for the entire world – as deeply as we should, as deeply as he wants to be known by us. The art of learning to listen to God is crucial.
Questions to Consider
How do you listen to God? What rhythms, rituals and routines help you create the time and space in your life to listen for God’s voice?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, you are a God who speaks, a God who communicates with your creation in order to shower your love upon it. Help me listen to you and hear your words to me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Through Jesus
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – John 10:4-6
When we listen to God, what are we listening to? And what are we listening for? What is it we are hoping to hear? There are many ways in which we can ‘hear’ what God is saying to us. There is not a single ‘one-size-fits-all’ method by which we hear God; we do not all have to discern his voice in the same way. God comes to us through the contours of our lives and experiences, through points of connection that allow him, as our Creator, to be deeply intimate with each of us. The ultimate way in which he does this is through Jesus. Everything God says comes to us through Jesus and points back to him. That is why in scripture – the story of God with us and the record of God’s revelation in Christ – we hear God communicating and speaking to us, through what his word said in the past and what it says to us now.
If we are not spending time with Jesus, and if we are not regularly meeting God in scripture, then we cannot expect to hear much from God. Listening requires more than just hearing. We need to position ourselves and arrange our lives so that through scripture and the inspiration of the Spirit of God, both in holy writ and in ourselves, we can discern the voice of God. This reality requires opportunity – so we must make the time and space for this opportunity to hear from the God who greatly desires to share himself with us, and who shared himself with us in the fullest, most complete way in his son Jesus.
Questions to Consider
What role does scripture play in helping you hear what God is saying to you? How does Jesus help you hear and listen?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for Jesus as model of listening and Jesus as the one who helps us listen. You revealed yourself through him and we meet him in scripture. Take me deeper into your word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – Communicating Throughout Our Lives
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Psalm 139:1-6
God also reaches out to us through our individual and communal situation and the events of our lives. Our entire life is the arena for God’s presence with us, and everything we do and every place we go presents an opportunity for us to listen. We shouldn’t just be seeking to listen to God when a big decision looms before us. We can hear his guiding, prompting, warning voice in the opportunities, limitations, giftings and circumstances of our everyday lives. If we can truly see ourselves as faithful servants of God – his ‘sheep’ – and obey accordingly, then each moment of our lives can become a place where we listen for his voice. Doing this also allows us to offer more of ourselves to him.
Our hopes and desires are another way in which we can listen and discern God’s message to us. Our true and ultimate desire is God, is to be with God. And that very desire is planted in us by God; often our desire is a God-given gift that, with careful discernment and submission, can be a further way in which he speaks to us. Following some of our desires would be ruinous for ourselves and others. But learning which desires are implanted in us by God, and prayerfully listening to discover how we should follow them, is another way in which God leads us and communicates with us. We need to sift our desires – sin always crouches at the door, waiting to warp and corrupt and twist what is good; this is why discernment and judgement are needed.
Questions to Consider
What experiences have you had when listening to God? How has he communicated with you and what has he said? How were you changed?
Prayer
Gracious God, help me see greater ways in which you can speak to me and look for more opportunities to listen to you. Give me greater vision and imagination so I can listen more and listen deeper. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – The Shema
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Deuteronomy 6:1-5
The Shema, in most English versions, begins with “Hear.” And that is what we are trying to do in prayer, to hear God’s voice. But it also has wider connotations that involve obedience as well: the word Shema means to hear and obey, to listen, to heed. The Shema became one of the central prayers of the Israelites, one they were encouraged to pray twice a day. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, he quoted the Shema in his response. His summary of the life his followers were to lead, of what the life of a disciple was to look like, was this idea of hearing and obeying that was already of pivotal importance to God’s people.
But we listen to God’s voice in order to obey it. We are not simply adding one more voice or influence or option or resource into our lives, but are seeking to hear the one above all others that gives us purpose, direction and meaning. God’s voice is the one that orders and prioritises all other voices, that reveals the truth or otherwise of all the other voices that clamour for our attention. To know what we are to do we need to know how to hear God and to obey what we hear him say. Learning to hear God’s voice and also to obey it, just as Jesus did, just as Jesus teaches us to do, is the most important thing we can do as disciples of Jesus. There are many voices telling us what to do; God’s is the one we must listen to first.
Questions to Consider
How do you ensure you listen to God’s voice before all others? How does this help you judge the other voices clamouring for your attention?
Prayer
Almighty God, you are Lord, and you know best what I should do and how I should live. Help me cut out the harmful chatter of other voices so that I can hear you and the other voices you would have me listen to. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – Discernment
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – John 10:27
One of the skills of prayer we need to develop is the ability to discern. Discernment is the ability to sift and weigh all the various voices, stirrings, promptings and impressions swirling around and within us, and work out which of the many calls on our attention is actually God speaking to us. Discernment is absolutely crucial in our relationship with God. Without it, the chances of us getting the wrong impression, going the wrong way, mishearing, are greatly increased. And it is a skill, something that we can do and develop, but it is a skill that works in tandem with the Holy Spirit. We do it together. Discernment is a work of the Spirit within us but also something we practise and work at ourselves, but not just by ourselves. It is a community activity too, in which we seek to hear God’s voice together.
Learning to discern takes time – time spent in the presence of God, listening. In the same way that we learn to recognise the voices of others by exposure to them, we will become more and more attuned to the voice of God the more time we spend listening to him and positioning ourselves so that we take the time to do so often. Sheep learn to recognise the shepherd’s voice. We can too. It takes time, and it takes discipline: the discipline to stop and listen, and the discipline to hear and obey. There is little point in listening if we are not going to heed what is said. Surrendering ourselves to God – but also to each other, together – is a crucial part of what it means to listen.
Questions to Consider
How does scripture help you discern what you have heard? How do you discern together with others? Why is it important to do this?
Prayer
Holy Father, teach me to discern your will. Give me others to help me hear from you, to guide me and teach me – but also others for me to help and seek you with. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)