Me reclining after walking up the “Rocky” stairs at the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Anybody who has been reading Lillie-Put for any length of time knows I have just come through one of the busiest autumns I have ever clocked. Now I am in a season of rest and recuperation.
God has been speaking to me about several things I am to pursue during this season. One of the items on that list is a deeper level of faith. I spoke about this a bit in my series, “Laboring to Rest.”
As I was meditating this morning, God spoke to me about another item to be added to that list, listening.
One of the issues I am dealing with coming off of the fall harvest is a feeling of both physical and mental exhaustion. My brain feels like it has been sand-blasted and as if all the ideas in it have been turned to dust.
Of course, I realize that is just a feeling and a misconception mixed together. The truth is the ideas are still there because they were not inspired by me in the first place. Any of my really good ideas started out as God’s ideas and since He never grows weary, His ideas can’t be blasted away by my busyness. What has changed is not His ability to create through me but my ability to connect to Him so the creativity can flow. Restoring the creative connection is going to require intentional active listening.
I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.
So now I am dedicating a large chunk of my prayer time to reading the Word and just sitting quietly before God and practicing the art of what the Quakers called centering down.
How do you practice the discipline of listening to God?
Lillie-Put 
Lovely post! God has recently shown me I need to listen more than I speak. I usually take a moment to sit and listen in the middle of my prayer time, and at the end I ask God, “Before I leave, is there anything else You want me to know?”
When I am on break, I plan on having long personal times with God, in which I plan to purposely spend twice as much time listening to God as I do talking to Him. I am excited to see the outcome of this.
I can’t wait to see what happens in your writing as a result.
Intentional active listening is pretty difficult at times especially with two pre-teens in the house and one thinks she is a “Drama Queen” I won’t elaborate. I am able to spend my quiet time with the Lord after Tom has gone to sleep and in that time of prayer I need to let God get a word in. Intentional active listening is something I really need to incorporate in my prayer time. Thanks, Pastor J for sharing this with us.
You are welcome. May God Grace you with a clear hearing of His voice.