Hope-Filled Christian
Hope-Filled Christian
Embracing the Quiet: Listening for God's Voice in the Stillness of Prayer
Amidst the stillness of a recent illness, I discovered a profound truth: silence speaks volumes in the realm of spirituality. On our latest podcast, I unveil the transformative power found in the quiet corners of prayer—where the Divine whispers and the soul listens. We're all familiar with the habitual chatter that fills our conversations with God, but today we shift our focus to the sacred practice of silent attentiveness, inspired by the wisdom of Proverbs 4:10 and Matthew 6:7. Join me as we explore the delicate art of balancing our spoken words with the rich, often neglected, tapestry of listening for God's voice.
In the hushed moments that followed my recovery, a personal revelation bloomed about the spiritual potency of guiding another's faith journey, relying solely on the strength God provides. This episode is a heartfelt narration of that experience, stitched together with the scriptural reassurances that underpin our trust in the Divine. As I recount the tale of deliberate quietude before God and the challenge of setting aside our pleas to bask in His presence, we uncover the subtle yet profound impact of dedicating our time as an act of worship. The insights shared here promise to reimagine your daily deeds as offerings, crafted not by the magnitude of the action, but by the reverence with which it is performed. Come, enrich your spiritual walk and find the extraordinary in the ordinary through the grace of God's silent language.
Hello, hi, welcome back to HFC. It's been a while. I apologize if there's any sounds in the background. If I were to wait for a perfect moment, it would not come. I refuse to not do another episode just because timing hasn't been perfect. So just quickly, cap and wine. I haven't been here.
Speaker 1:First off, I was going to do it every two weeks and then I got sick, really sick I'm talking like I passed out one day for about 24 hours straight, kind of sick Heavy viewers. Then the next week I still did not have my voice back, I was on steroids and I just literally could not talk. And then, you know, the next week I had my final, basically for one of my courses and I was too busy that week. And then it's just. It was always something and, oddly enough, this week I decided that I wanted to make time for God because, I don't know, I just did. I kept asking myself why do I feel like I'm in a weird place? Why do I feel like you know and it's? And I was telling myself it's because I'm not making a priority, I'm not trying to actively make time for God. I'm fitting men when I can and where I can, which is okay and sometimes. But when I know that I have time that I could easily move around things that I could easily move around, and I'm not, that's when it becomes not okay, like if you're always actively busy in your work and you only have time to read the Bible during your lunch break and you read a little bit and that's it. That's fine, but I feel like only think that the things that we want to do are more important. That's when we begin to take a more prideful stance and begin to lose our relationship with God, we take him for granted and we lose that humility and that fear and respect that we should have for God. So, oddly enough, I wasn't planning on starting it like that, but the focus for this week is talking about prayer. Almost I'll read the verse and then kind of go from there.
Speaker 1:Today's verse is from Proverbs. It's Proverbs, chapter four, verse 10. It says Listen to me and do as I say, and you will have a long, good life. And ultimately, isn't that what all of us want? A life that's good, a life that's happy, joy-filled and pleasant generally. But how many times do we actually spend time to listen to God? And I don't even mean praising and worshiping, I don't even mean praying, not in a specific way. I guess what God was revealing to me, because I've always thought it's weird how sometimes I just want to pray and I just want to pray and I want to say I'm going to say I'm going to speak and I'm speaking things over things, and there's other times where I'm like I don't have any words, and sometimes that's okay.
Speaker 1:So God, this week, I guess, was making this connection between you know, it says Listen to me and do as I say and you will have a long, good life. But how many times do we actually listen to God? How many times do we put ourselves in a position to listen to God? And he began to reveal to me when we pray, we're oftentimes just throwing things out. Throwing things out we're not actually listening and we feel like if we keep just praying, keep saying things, that it's going to make them come true and it's going to make them, you know, fulfilled, and so and I know this verse isn't, I mean, I guess it is talking about this but there's another verse that I don't read.
Speaker 1:It's Matthew, chapter six, verse seven. It says and when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not verse eight. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. And I know it goes on to say, like Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name and kingdom. Come, you will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our dutters, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Speaker 1:But I don't know. I just feel like God's been revealing to me like why do we feel the need to pray if we have not a religion but a relationship with God? Isn't there times in a relationship where you speak and times where you listen, times where you have constant conversation and times where you just sit there and exist in each other's presence, times where you just rest and you just don't do anything. You're just there. I mean, if I measured my relationship with my mother and father solely on the fact that, oh, they only love me, they only care about me if they're talking, then I'd have a very poor realization of what it means for them to love me, because we don't spend every moment talking. Sometimes it's just being near someone, sometimes it's just a security of their presence. Sometimes it's just the fact that they came to sit by you to watch a movie or sit by you while they're doing something, just because they want to be around you. That's what God was revealing to me and has been revealing to me this week.
Speaker 1:It's not about having the right words to say. It's not about constantly saying something and constantly speaking the Bible there's nothing wrong with that either but there are times when it's okay and even necessary to enter His presence with Thanksgiving, to start off with thank you God for all of this, and then just sit and listen, and just sit and be present and thank God for hearing you in a more passive experience, where we're not having to say so many words, we're not having to do so many things, we're just resting and sitting in the presence of God, making an active effort to do nothing but wait on Him, to listen to Him, to hear Him. There's just something beautiful in saying, like God, I don't need you to say anything, I don't need you to do anything, I just want to sit here with you, and for me that's lately just been on the floor of my room, just sitting and nothing. I put on music and I just sit there. I'm not even singing, I just sit there and I imagine Him sitting with me and I imagine Him being with me and just sitting there, and it is so calming I don't even know why and in some way it speaks more than words, because I just begin to feel like it's all going to be okay, everything's going to be okay, and I've told my family there's been some stressful things going on at work.
Speaker 1:I've had a lot. Of this is partly why I've been so stressed out and I'm like I'm doing courses and I'm doing all this and I'm doing all that and I'm getting. I know I was getting stressed out and you know, while I was sitting there quietly, I just began to sit there and it's like verses that I've known would come into my head and you know I was like oh, there's nothing that you can't do. I can do all things in Christ, that it does all things for the good of those who love Him. And I began to just hear those verses come through my head, verses that I'm not very good at memorizing, but because it was just quiet it's, I was able to hear the word that he had for me, hear the fact that you know, yes, it's a very stressful moment.
Speaker 1:I have so many students that are very, very, very needy and I don't mind it. I'm not trying to say that bad or anything. Look, oh, I hate my job. I feel like when I say that, people are like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, like no, that's not something I apologize for. I enjoy the experience of having these students, I love these students, I love working with these kids, but it's it's still challenging, it's still stressful, it's still scary and worry, like worrisome, because I feel like every day I question whether or not I'm doing as much as I possibly can and whether or not I'm teaching as much as I possibly can. You know, doing my job as much as I possibly can, and I'm getting a new student who's being transferred from another class because it wasn't, it wasn't working for him and this is not a student that typically would fit in my class and and I'm just getting nervous because it's like they're not even the grade that I teach but at the same time, I want to. I know the student, I know the needs that they have. They're very. They need a lot of confirmation, a lot of validation, a lot of just speaking life into them, and I know that I can do that and I'm thankful for the experience and it's actually something that I've been praying to God about.
Speaker 1:I've always kind of had struggles with experiencing and giving. I'm not giving love. I've been kind of giving love like letting people know that I care about them. But receiving love and a lot of it is because I have a very hard trouble of the concept of love, of loving people in the way that God loves people and understanding the way that God loves me. And, sorry, I've been asking God. I asked him at the beginning of the year but, like I said, kind of veered off. So I started asking him again and I was like God, help me to love people in the way that you love me, so that I can understand what it means to be loved by you, so that I can understand how to be loved and how to be cared for.
Speaker 1:And then this student comes into my class and I am, or I was, so scared because I'm like, okay, I know that immediately I'm this sounds so bad, but I'm a better option than the other teacher in terms of being kind and giving compliments, but it's still like it's so stressful because these are kids' lives and all this stuff, and it's like what if I can't do enough? What if I'm not enough? What if I can't love them in the way that they need to be loved? And then I hear that and then I'm reminded like I'm just reminded right now that that I even asked for that and realizing that this is what I asked for an opportunity to love someone. But at the same time this goes back to that verse that I read in the beginning, proverbs 4-10, that we have to listen to him and do as he says.
Speaker 1:Because if I go off, my immediate reaction sure I can love them in the way that I know to love and I know to care, but that's not what I asked for. I asked to love people in the way that God loves me, and so, on my way home, I was like feeling very emotional. I didn't even realize that what I was asking for was that and it was in line with what I was. Just I'm making that connection. That's something I asked for and this is now something that God has provided me with. It's funny the perspective that puts, because my immediate reaction was I'm terrified. What if I fail this kid? What if I can't encourage them in the right way? And I was very stressed out and then, like I said, I was praying and God just put those verses in my head that God does all things for the good of those to love them. That I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength. That Jesus called us to love God and then love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1:And that's another area that I struggle with Just love in general and allowing myself to sit there and not praying and throwing all my worries at God, but just sitting there because God knows my worries, just sitting there and listening. And I'm not saying you can't have prayers that are like that. Really, god help me with this, god help me with that. Just sitting. And it's passive, but it's active because I'm not just sitting there doing nothing. I'm sitting there and I'm actively doing nothing. I won't check my phone, I won't do anything, I just I have worship music on. I'm actively sitting there, doing nothing because I want to hear him. I'm sitting there with an expectation and in a Goal in mind that I'm going to hear him, that I'm gonna sit here and I'm going To encounter God's presence, not strongly, not wildly, because I don't need a blessing and I don't need a constant anointing that makes me go crazy and fill on fire and stuff. I just need him. I don't need him Wildly or In large amounts or small amounts, I just need him period. And so if he chose to, you know, have me speak in tongues and go crazy in my I'm not crazy, but go Get on fire like in my room. That's fine.
Speaker 1:But there's also beauty and just sitting there and saying, god, whatever you have for me, I Want it. Whatever you have for me, it's enough. I know that it's enough because you are more than enough. And I guess what I'm trying to say is Because I've always had a bad habit of when my Things get tough and I'm struggling, I start throwing and I start like creating some an insane Idea of how much time I have to do a crazy fast. I have to do this, I have to do that and again, there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:But sometimes that's not about what you're doing, it's about the posture that you have when you're doing it. It's not about having, you know, five hour precession every day for a week straight or a month straight. It's about having that 30 minute where you fully and just you just sit there and you do nothing and you just Wait for God. You're actively doing nothing, actively saying God, I give you this time. I'm not gonna do anything for these next two songs. I'm not gonna do anything for the next 30 minutes. I'm just here for you Because he's always there for us. But how many times we off ourselves up here for them and not because we have to, not because of church, not because of you know something where we feel obligated because we're in a Scenario where other people are doing it, but a time when we're doing it by ourselves and just sitting and listening and and offering our time to God.
Speaker 1:And for me, that's my biggest thing, because I've always been very bad about time Like I can offer God money and I've told people that and I don't mean that like in a oh yeah, I got tons of money, I just mean for me, money was always, you know, god is blessing this money, like my job in itself was a blessing from God. You know, the scholarship money was a blessing from God. I, for me, it's, it's impossible not to give God my money, but Giving God my time is another thing, because I feel like Like I don't have time for that, oh, but I don't have time to read my Bible. I don't have time to do that. I don't have time to and I don't know. I Found that I mean, it's only been two days of this week, but I found that I've had time to study for my classes. I've had time to crochet, which I started on even off. Told you guys, I've had time to read, you know, and study God's word about time to sit there and pray. I had time to listen to Sermons and preaching. And then I still, even yesterday, I still had time to go and play video games, and All because I decided that I was going to actively make time, that I was going to put in verse and Suddenly it felt like I had so much time.
Speaker 1:So all I'm saying is if you're in a stressful moment, keep in mind it's One, like the verse says we should be listening and doing as he calls us to. Specifically, it says listen to me and do as I say, and you have a long, good life, but to it's not so much what we're doing, it's how we're doing it. I'm pretty sure it's a verse. Sorry if it's not, might just be something people say, but that's saying that we should do everything as if it's being done into God. The importance of what we're doing Really has impact. It really has, sorry, not what we're doing. The importance of how we're doing. It really is an impact on what we're doing. So it's not the fact that we're sitting, it's the fact that we're sitting and we don't have to be, and we're offering that time to God.
Speaker 1:Anyway, as always, let's go ahead and pray and I guess I'll keep it in mind where I won't pray too many words, because, you know, it's not about the words sometimes, it's just about the time. Dear God, thank you for being accessible, for being here, present. No, awkward silence is just silence. Thank you for moving in ways that we can imagine, understand, and for answering prayers. Thank you for wanting to spend time with us, loving us in every way, in every situation, through everything, knowing everything. God, help us to just not think about the act itself, but think about how we're doing the act, doing it with the intention of honoring and worshiping you, has so much more worth than what we're doing. And help us to understand that. Not to say, lord, that we think you know we can just eat snacks to lift you up, but realizing that the intention with what we do things is just as important as what we do. Lord, keep us from temptation, lead us from sin In the name of Jesus. Oh, forgive us of our sins, amen.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to this week's episode of HFC. I hope you enjoyed it. Again, I apologize for not being active. I guess I would be lying if I said I knew what the next month would be like. But there's that beautiful verse that I've always liked by God that you know mentions that we're just a wisp. We're just pretending if we think we have any idea of what's going to go on next week or the month of that. So in respect of that, I'll promise to do my best to spend time with God and listen to him when he calls me to do an episode. Nothing more than that. Have a great week. Have a great week, depending on what it looks like. God bless you. Thanks for listening. Bye.