“Do you talk to God?” an atheist once asked a believer.
“Oh, yes, all the time,” replied the Christian.
“And does He answer you?”
“Certainly.”
“In an audible voice?” the doubter pressed.
“No, in a still small voice that I hear with my heart.”
“How do you know it’s Him and not someone else?”
“Years of listening,” the believer answered. “Years of listening.”
Recently, I heard about a woman who wasn’t sure that God heard her prayers, so she asked the Lord to speak to her.
“What should I do with my life?” she asked.
“Visit the sick,” God answered. “Help the poor, live in peace.”
Startled to hear God reply so quickly and so directly, she muttered, “I… I was only testing.”
“So was I,” God returned.
Sometimes we pray so long about a problem that we fail to hear God’s marching orders. Either that, or we are so intent on what we want that we don’t hear what He wants. Spiritual listening requires stillness, faith and obedience. And real communication mandates pauses to let the other party get a word in edgewise.
Fred Bauer, Daily Guideposts, 2001, Tuesday, March 13, 2001, pp. 127, 128.