Monthly Archives: June 2010

So as I sit outside tonight being attacked by bugs I figured it was a good time to blog a little bit. I have defiantly missed writing the past few weeks. Hopefully some of you share my love for writing just to write which is primarily what I do on this blog, I just share it with everyone . By the way as a quick sidenote, check out Craig Grochel’s book called “The Christian Atheist” It’s really good about how to grow more as a Christian and move into a more authentic relationship with him. Something that we all need no matter where we are in our faith journey.

Tonight is just so quite. Peaceful is the word that comes to mind. Its not to hot after the summer thunder storm that came through a bit ago and if you listen closely you can hear all of the sounds of nature. As I was reading tonight I began to think about the concept of listen. I know in my life I don’t do nearly as much of this as I should. I really do want to listen more and grow in that but sometimes I find myself doing less and less (totally unintentional but it’s still something that needs to change). As I thought about listening, I began to think of this in accordance with my faith. Spiritual listening means that I spend more time being quite and allowing God to talk.

During my prayer times it seems I do a majority of the talking. I mean, its prayer so thats what I’m supposed to be doing right? Well I think that sometimes we can stray from the other side of prayer. Prayer isn’t something where we just tell God whats going on, ask for stuff, and say see ya later. Prayer is supposed to be a two way communication. But how do we listen when we don’t really know what we should be hearing? As I work on this spiritual discipline of listening and prayer, I have found that alongside of prayer we have to spend time just in his presence. We can sit and read the Bible, a book, or just sit and enjoy His creation. Right off we won’t hear anything because God’s voice isn’t the strongest, but sometimes the quietest. He wants for us to really focus on listening so that we can hear him speak to us.

This doesn’t mean that we will always hear him clearly nor in a way that makes since. This does mean that we can begin to change and listen to Him which is a process. We have to take a step to hear what he is saying, and when it doesn’t seem like he is saying anything we should continue to press into him. I can’t explain the peace I feel when I’m worshiping or just sitting and focusing on Him. It’s like I never want to leave because I fill my hear filled with his spirit. It is a beautiful collision when we allow ourselves to listen instead of telling God what we want for him to do or to say to us.

For me, this means that I need to sit down and shut up more both spiritually and probably would be a good idea to do this in daily life as well. Now this will be a constant fight for me, but I know that I am not alone at all. This is something that I feel alot of us do a good job on, but we can always strive to do better and grow more. Admiting that we are on the weak side of anything is the first step to growing, because we realize that we can grow once we have an area that we believe needs growth.

So I’m going to start listening more and letting God move and speak through me. It will be a challenge but I believe that it is what God wants for not only me, but maybe you as well. Join me, lets do this together and see how God can use us to expand his Kingdom

A Servant