It’s not a coincidence that listen and silent are spelled with the same letters. I heard it said that, “God gave us mouths that close and ears that don’t… that should tell us something.”
Listening for God involves quieting our minds and muting out the noise of this world so that we can give our full attention to what God wants to tell us. This reminds me of when Jesus spoke to a tumultuous storm on the Sea of Galilee. He quieted all the noise with the simple words “Quiet! Be still!” Mark 4:39 NIV.
In reality, there is no magic formula when it comes to hearing God’s voice. Listening to God’s voice comes by focusing on our relationship with Him and not the world. If we are only going to Him for answers when we are facing a crisis, or need guidance on an important decision, we may be too frustrated, angry, or flat
out exhausted to clearly hear His voice.
Now don’t get me wrong, we often seek God’s presence with our worries, our desires, and our frustrations because He expects for us to bring it all to Him. God truly wants us to lay all these things out to Him so that He can speak through our circumstances, conversations with others, our thoughts, music, books we read, beauty in nature- the list is endless. But one thing will always hold true- His voice always stands up to His word aka the Bible!
Undoubtedly, God wants us to know Him. He wants us to hear what He’s saying to us so that we can live according to the perfect plan He has for our lives. We will never understand everything God is doing or saying, but we can learn to trust Him in all circumstances by knowing that He is always trustworthy.
Because of that, we can begin to live a life in a way that enables us to hear Him, but first we must start from the presumption that He loves us and wants to communicate with us. My brothers and sisters,
thank God for choosing to make Himself known to you! Invite Him to remove the noise of this world and teach you how to hear His voice. And then wait patiently for Him to speak.
God wants your relationship with him to deepen over time. The more you approach Him, the more you will get to know Him, trust Him and recognize His voice.
4GIVEN 