Praying and Listening

One of my favorite books for over 35 years now has been a little book entitled God Calling.  I get it at Barnes and Noble for 5.99-7.99, depending on when and where I pick it up.  The book has an editor (A.J. Roussel), but no author.  The two women who wrote it called themselves "two listeners;" each day, they sat down to listen together to what God would say to them.  Although I may not read the entries every single day, on the days I do read, it does sound as if God were truly speaking to me that day.  I have given this book to hundreds of people over the years; some of them have told me that this was the best thing I had ever given to them.

The lasting endurance of this small volume can teach us something about praying and listening.  It is no secret that God does want to speak to us and guide us, but as the Psalm says, "Let me guide you with mine eye; do not be like the horse or the mule that needs a bridle."  God's guidance is so soft and quiet that we must be still and listen to hear it.

Buying a journal is a good first step; sitting down with a notebook is an act of faith---you are expecting the Lord to teach you, every bit as much as the student who walks into a classroom with an empty notebook.  That expectation will bear fruit---but it is not necessary to worry about what you will "get," nor is it even important that you write anything at all.  You are not "writing," but capturing the word of the Lord to you, if He chooses to speak.

To sit in His Presence, expectantly, is enough.  We want to be with the people we love, even if we are not speaking to one another at the moment.  Adrienne von Speyer says that when people have been married a long time, all the stories have been told, and there is not always a need to speak.  Their being together is a prayer in itself.  So, too, when we sit in the Presence of God; just being there is a prayer.  If we need help, a good book is always a prayer-starter, according to Teresa of Avila.  The church calls it "Lectio Divina," or "holy reading."  That too is a gift, if we allow the Holy Spirit to direct us to the one book we need to be reading at that moment of our lives. 

If we set aside a place in our homes as a place of prayer, whether it's the bed, a comfortable chair, or the front porch, we will soon find ourselves praying whenever we are in that place.  The "place" becomes associated with prayer in our brains, and the connections are automatic after awhile. 

What God has to say to us is always surprising and fresh.  There is nothing stale about God, for He is creativity itself, and creativity involves movement.  The fun part of prayer is not what we have to say to God, but what He has to say to us!