Episode #308 A Guide to Listening Prayer – Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Hey friends, thanks for joining me for this episode of Good God Talks. Today we're talking about Listening Silence, which is a necessary part of all of our episodes. The whole point of this podcast is not for you to hear from me, but is for each of us to draw near and to hear from God. I offer a theme and a verse, and a question to ask him as a way of helping us all grow our habit of talking with him, and therefore listening to him more intently. And today we're talking about Listening Silence, and I wanna start with Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Being still can feel impossible, maybe even intimidating. Our worlds are full of noise. We have notifications and kids and conversations everywhere we go. There's background noise or music, and so it can feel impossible to sit in silence, and it can also feel intimidating because it can be unfamiliar.

I think especially when we talk about drawing near to God in listening prayer, in Contemplative Prayer, which is what we practice here in these episodes, that can feel intimidating. What if God doesn't answer? What if he never answers? What if he doesn't answer quickly or in the timeline that I need him to? What does that mean about him? Or what does that mean about me? Or what does that mean about how he feels about me?

Listening Silence trains us to let God and his voice lead us. It teaches us stillness and reflection. We're not just still and quiet because it's nice, or it's a spiritual discipline, or it's an area where we need to grow ourselves. We are still because we know that he is God. We believe what he tells us about himself, that he will speak to us. When we call to him, he will answer. We believe that he is close. Even if we can't sense him or feel him or notice him, we believe that he is God and so we can be still before him and wait. Not with an expectation, God's not required to engage with us, but in anticipation because we believe that he's true. And he says he offers relationship to us in this way and we can believe him.

I've been rereading Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline and I'm in the section talking about worship and he says, “The first avenue into worship is to still all humanly initiated activity.”

God is the one who initiates, always. He is the one who draws us in and draws us closer, and Foster acknowledges that this can feel impossible. He says, “The only reason we believe it to be far beyond us is that we do not understand Jesus as our present Teacher. When we have been under his tutelage for a time, we see how it is possible for every motion of our lives to have its root in God. We wake up in the morning and lie in bed quietly praising and worshiping the Lord. We tell him that we desire to live under his leadership and rule. Driving to work, we talk with our Teacher. Immediately our Mentor flashes before our mind that caustic remark we made to our spouse at breakfast, that shrug of disinterest we gave our children on the way out the door. We realize we have been living in the flesh. There is confession, restoration, and a new humility.”

Those come from the silence of pausing, wanting to draw near, wanting to receive what the Lord would have for us. Wanting to grow our trust in him believing he is who he says that he is.

And so the question that I'm gonna leave you with today I already asked God and I was a little surprised by his answer. And so I wanna share that with you, too. The question is:

God, what do you want to teach me about Listening Silence?

And I felt like what God spoke in my spirit was that he wants me (I'm not saying this is for you, but for me), to practice listening, even when I don't get a response. Just for the sake of being still before him and waiting patiently. Being mindful of him even if he doesn't answer.

And I feel like he said in my spirit that internal knowing kind of way he wants me to practice listening for longer stretches of silence. He wants me to grow impatience and in waiting, especially if I don't hear anything right away. One of the ways I engage with God is I hear or sense something and then I ask something back or I respond. And so it is very much a conversation. And one of the things he wants to teach me about Listening Silence is listening longer and waiting before I respond for what else he might wanna share with me. I don't know what that is for you. That's what it is for me. But I know that this is a wonderful gift that we get to be still and know that he is God.

And so I'm excited for you to experience this practice with God in a new way. And so here's that question one more time:

God, what do you want to teach me about Listening Silence?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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