LISTEN and SILENT are spelled with the same letters.
LISTEN and SILENT
are spelled with the same letters.
THINK ABOUT IT.
A friend sometimes sends me little sayings. I was surprised when he texted this one to me the other day: he had no idea how perfect it would be right now.
For three weeks every year, usually in January (to get the new year off to a good start), I take some steps to be closer to God. I cut some things out of my life and my diet to make myself more mindful of my relationship with him, and more focused on communicating with him.
Because I want to not only talk to him more, but also to hear from him more, I try to tune out the noises that seem to block me from hearing his voice.
One of those noises is the TV. So for 21 days our TV stays off unless my husband Bill is watching it. Because Bill works evenings, and I’m usually at home alone, the house becomes eerily quiet. It makes me feel like I’m in a vacuum. It makes me uncomfortable, and I have to remind myself that there is a purpose for the silence.
To help me begin to focus on God, I listen to sermons and worship music on YouTube. This also helps to relieve the eerie stillness and to fill some of the time that would have been spent with the TV (and no, I do not consider this cheating!). I also read inspirational books, blogs and the Bible. Then, to position myself to hear God’s voice, I worship him; I thank him for what he’s done for me and tell him how amazing he is (I think this is mostly for my benefit—to remind myself that I have the privilege of being in a relationship with the most kind, magnificent, and powerful being in the universe!).
And then I sit in the quiet, at my kitchen table, with a pen in my hand and my journal in front of me, and I talk to God. I tell him what’s troubling me. I talk to him about my life and my family and my world. I ask him questions and then I wait for him to answer.
And, amazingly, he does.
Out of the silence I hear his voice—not in my physical ears, but somewhere in my mind or my spirit. When the words come, I quickly write them into my journal before they are lost.
And when I go back and read them, I am amazed—because these words don’t sound like words I would write. I know, because I write a lot, I know what my words sound like, and these are not mine.
These words are His words.
These words are a message from my Father. They encourage me and instruct me; they make me feel loved and valued and seen.
And they are well worth my (very small) sacrifice of silence.
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
Action Step: Think about what might be keeping you from hearing God’s voice, then take some time to quiet your world, focus on Jesus, call to him . . . and listen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katie Lerro is a happily proclaimed “Late Bloomer”—only finding her passion for writing upon hitting her middle years. She lives in South Philly with her husband, Bill, where she enjoys gardening in their tiny concrete yard, taking long walks around the city, and spending time with daughters Alexis and Alison.