Scripture: John 16:12-15
Journal: What is your life telling you these days when you listen to it? What are the Scriptures saying to you? Is there a consistent theme? What is the Spirit of God within you saying
to you?
Reflection:
It seems to me that a significant amount of
the spiritual life involves listening.
Given that fact, I wonder why we don’t practice it more often. Is it because we are afraid of what God might
say? Is it because we’re afraid he might
not say anything at all? Or is it
because we are afraid we will not be able to tell the difference between his
voice and the thousands of other voices going on in our heads and in our hearts
at any given moment?
Jesus was really clear that
one of the main ways God would speak to us was by his Spirit within us. And he was also pretty clear that once God
had spoken to us, we would know it—my sheep know my voice (John 10:4). Simply put, there is a qualitative
difference between the voice of the Good Shepherd and the other voices within
and around us. It is up to us, with
God’s help, to be able to discern the difference. As a body, we must learn how to listen to
God’s Spirit within us, to hear it clearly, and then to trust what he has
said. And my guess is that a lot of that
will come as a result of practice. Just
like it is with anyone we love, when we get used to the quality and the tone
and the content of his voice within us, we come to recognize it more clearly and
trust it more fully. It just has a ring
of truth in our souls.
But luckily it doesn’t stop
there, because God has given us means of confirming his voice deep within us. He has given us his word, and the community
of faith around us, to help us know whether or not we are hearing him
clearly. For if his word, his people,
and his Spirit within us are all saying the same thing, then we can be pretty
sure that the voice we are hearing is, in fact, the voice of God.
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: What do you have to say to me today Jesus,
through your Spirit?
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