Longing to Listen
A former member of our congregation stopped by our church office recently. “What’s going on?” I asked her. “Well,” she said, “I finally retired. But now I’m not sure what to do. I guess I’m in a season of discernment. I’m trying to listen to God and discover what he wants me to do next.”
In some ways, her description of her life-stage fits many of us. For those who are truly seeking a more significant spiritual life, listening seems to be the one commonality. We’re listening for God’s guidance in our work. We’re listening for God’s leadership in our relationships. We’re listening for God’s direction in major decisions. We’re listening for God’s answers to circumstances that puzzle us. For more and more of us, life with Jesus is a life of listening.
In his book The Power of a Whisper Bill Hybels focuses on about twenty individuals in the Bible who heard God in a distinct way.[i] These include Adam and Eve, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Balaam, Joshua, Samuel, Job, Zechariah, Joseph, Mary, Jesus, Philip, Peter, and Paul. Each was blessed with direct interaction with and instruction from God. Each heard from the Lord. Many of us long for this very thing. We hunger for a fresh and living word from the One who made us and loves us.
Hearing by Reading
Thankfully, this craving can be satisfied through the meditative reading of Scripture. Marjorie Thompson calls this “spiritual reading”:
“Spiritual reading is reflective and prayerful. It is concerned not with speed or volume but with depth and receptivity. That is because the purpose of spiritual reading is to open ourselves to how God may be speaking to us in and through any particular text. The manner of spiritual reading is like drinking in the words of a love letter or pondering the meaning of a poem. It is not like skittering over the surface of a popular magazine or plowing through a computer manual. We are seeking not merely information but formation.”[ii]
The meditative reading of Scripture is one of the most promising ways to perceive the hushed voice of God. It is based on a singular conviction: God still speaks. He is not mute. He not silent. God has not lost his voice. We have lost our ears. Just as he did to Adam, Moses, and Mary, so God still addresses any person who humbly seeks an audience with him in the pages of his word. He may express himself in many other ways. But most certainly does so through the words of the Bible.
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[i] Bill Hybels The Power of a Whisper (Zondervan, 2010), Kindle Edition.
[ii]Marjorie Thompson, Soul Feast (Westminster John Knox, 1985), 18 (emphasis added).
