Listening to His voice

In the hustle and bustle of life I often find it hard to find that quiet time to really listen to God. Yet, it’s so crucial! For me, I try to make it a habit to spend time with God every day but I know from personal experience it is not always as easy as it seems! I think it’s really important to get into some type of a daily routine to spend time with God, especially to listen.

I like waking up early and spending time in prayer in the morning and then reading the Bible or listening to a Christian podcast in the evenings. In addition to this daily time with God, I’ve found it’s really important to take larger blocks of time on occasion and just listen to God or praise him for all of the things He is doing in my life. Everyone is different so you have to find something that works for you. For me, I like taking walks in the woods outside and spend time listening to the silence and it is there that I can hear God’s voice above all of lifes distractions.

Something else that I really enjoy doing while spending some quiet time with God is shutting my bedroom door, turning off the lights, turning on my stereo to praise music, and laying on the floor in the middle of my room and spending time in prayer. Sounds corny, I know, but for me it works. I would encourage you to find a place that works best for you, whether that may be. Make it a habit to listen!

My favorite question after this chapter: Hebrews 4:12 says “the word of God is living and active”. How have you experienced it “coming to life”? Describe your experience.

My response:A couple years ago I was feeling really overwhelmed and stressed. I began having a lot of anxiety to the point where I was having a really hard time sleeping and eating. I could not enjoy virtually anything because I was so overwhelmed with these going on in my life. I continued to pray about it and was feeling like nothing I was doing was helping. As I sat awake in bed one night unable to sleep, I pulled my Bible off my night stand and began leafing through the pages with no intention of what I was going to read. Just looking for something that hit me, I suppose...

Have you ever shut the Bible and then flipped it open, skimmed the page and repeated the process over again until something hits you?

Well, I do that a lot! I flipped to a random page and when I looked down, the first thing I read “come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Right then and there I realized that God was speaking to me-- wrapping his loving arms around me, and telling me that everything was going to be okay.

Have you ever had a moment like that?

Challenge: find a quiet place and commit to spending time in prayer with God every day. I think you’ll be amazed at how God chooses to speak to you through his word, through music, through other people etc.