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Sometimes I listen for God’s voice and don’t hear anything. I feel like my friend who finally gave up and concluded that God doesn’t really speak to us in intimate ways. When I read the Psalms I am confronted with the human anguish one experiences when God is silent.
But I cry to you for help, O Lord;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Why, O Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me?
(Psalm 88:13)
I have three responses to the silence of God.
First, I am aware that I have selective listening. By that I mean, I’m listening for what I want to hear from God. Every morning I spend time in prayer. I talk to God about my concerns and about my family. I ask God for specific enlightenment or for intervention in specific situations. These are the things on my mind, so these are the things I’m listening for. When I ask God to tell me what stand to take in a thorny situation, for example, then that’s what I’m tuned in to hear. I want to hear the answers to my prayers.
What I fail to listen for, however, is what is on God’s mind. What God has for me on any given day may have nothing to do with what is on my mind. It is very possible that God is speaking and my selective listening is tuning out the Divine words. I expect God to pay close attention to what I’m struggling with and get right back to me. Yet, I don’t bother to even wonder what is on God’s mind and the ways I need to get right back with God.
Listening must involve opening our ears and our minds to hear whatever God has for us. Yes, we must listen closely for God’s answers to our prayers, but we must also honor God enough to wonder what else God might want to say to us.
Second, listening for God is not dependent upon whether or not God speaks to me. Loving God is demonstrated in listening for God’s voice as much or more than listening to God’s voice. “You’re splitting hairs,” you may say. I don’t think so. Sometimes I listen for God’s voice and don’t hear anything. I sit in silence for a lengthy period and nothing comes. Rather than being disappointed, however, I’m learning to rejoice.
Is the purpose of the silence and listening to hear what God has to say to me or is it to demonstrate my love for God and that I’m willing to hear? I think it’s both. If I believe only that the purpose of silence and listening is to hear God’s voice, I will continually be disappointed when that voice does not come. If, however, I also believe that silence and listening is a way to honor God and demonstrate my love for God, then I will always come away with the knowledge that I have loved well.
Third, God does not always speak to me on my schedule at my convenience. Sometimes I hear God’s instruction at the most inopportune time. It is very much like the relationship I had with my children as they were growing up. Many times they would interrupt me in the middle of my work or right at the climax of some exciting TV show. To my shame, I often turned them away with an, “I’m busy,” or “Come back in a few minutes.” With those words I demonstrated how unimportant I thought they were.
At other times, to my credit, I turned off the TV or set my important work aside, turned my chair around and looked squarely into their faces ready to really listen to whatever was on their mind. When I did that I was clearly saying to them, “You are important and I love you.”
Listening to God is similar. Often God speaks to me when I have other things on my mind and think I’m too busy to listen. I can turn a deaf ear which is an easy habit to learn. That relays to God how unimportant I think our relationship is. Or I can stop what I am doing, no matter how important, to listen to what God has for me. When I do that, I communicate the message that God is the most important thing in my life and that I love God deeply.
Listening, truly listening, whether God speaks or not, is an act of love.
