listen

Opening Prayer: Lord, teach me to listen.  The times are noisy and my ears are weary with the thousand raucous sounds which continuously assault them.  Give me the spirit of the boy Samuel when he said to Thee, “Speak, for thy servant heareth.”  Let me hear Thee speaking in my heart.  Let me get used to the sound of Thy voice, that its tones may be familiar when the sounds of earth die away and the only sound will be the music of Thy speaking voice.  Amen.  (The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer)

Scripture: Isaiah 55:1-3

Journal: How are you making space in your life to listen to God?  How is that going?  How do you listen?

Reflection: Listening means being released from willfulness, arrogance, and self-assertiveness.  It calls for respectful presence to the mystery we are meditating, for humble openness to its meaning.  Such listening or apprehending is prior to our appraisal of these meanings and our decision to incorporate them into our spiritual development, should God give us the grace for this growth. . . .  Listening is only possible to the degree that we let go of the grip of our egotistic will and become inwardly and outwardly silent, alert, receptive, attentive.  Then we may be able to think clearly or meditate; it becomes possible to reflect on our lives as a whole or on a text we are reading.  What we hear sinks from our minds into our hearts.  Ideas are not exploited to serve our purposes but to direct us to deeper wisdom, to a revelation of persons, events, and things as they are in themselves.  We become the servants rather than the masters of the world. (Pathways of Spiritual Living by Susan Annette Muto) 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Speak, O Lord, as we come to You, to receive the food of Your holy word.  Take Your truth, plant it deep in us; shape and fashion us in Your likeness, that the light of Christ might be seen today, in our acts of love and our deeds of faith.  Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes, for Your glory. (Speak O Lord by Stuart Townend, Keith Getty)