Cultivating a Habit of Listening to God

In recent weeks, the church Terri and I have been attending has focused on growing in prayer, personally and corporately. In turn, this has helped me delve into prayer more deeply as well. I’ve spent more time intentionally reflecting on prayer and the purpose of my prayer life.

At its core, prayer is personal communication with God. It includes requests for ourselves and for others, confession of sin, adoration, praise, and thanksgiving. Prayer expresses our trust in God and serves as a means through which our trust in the Lord can grow and increase. We pray in faith—utterly dependent and trusting God.

If our lives are going to reflect the image of God, then we need to spend time with God in prayer. Prayer is a two way conversation—a truth we often overlook—which means we listen as well as speak.

The Lord, in His infinite wisdom, gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Cultivating a habit of listening to God in your prayer time is a beautiful endeavor that can deepen your relationship with the Lord and bring clarity and guidance to your life.

Here are 7 biblical principles designed to help you develop listening as an integral aspect of prayer:

1. Create space for silence: Life seems like a mad dash from A to B. In the hustle and bustle of life, it’s important to intentionally carve out moments of silence in our prayer time. In Psalm 46:10 encourages us, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Embracing silence allows us to quieten our thoughts and listen for God’s gentle whisper.
2. Engage with Scripture: Our Bibles aren’t meant just to sit there. Scripture is something we can engage and interact with everyday. The Lord speaks to us through His Word. Regularly reading and meditating on the Scriptures opens our heart to the truths and guidance God wants to impart to us. In Psalm 119:105 the psalmist affirms, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
3. Practice discernment: one difference between simply hearing and really listening involves discernment. Listening to God demands discernment. In 1 John 4:1, God’s word urges us to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. As we seek God’s voice, be attentive to the promptings and thoughts that align with His character and Word.
4. Be open and receptive: We should approach our prayer time with an open heart and a willingness to hear from God. Proverbs 2:2-5 speaks to this: “Making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding.” Throughout our lives, we experience God speaking in unexpected ways, so we need to be receptive to hearing His voice.
5. Seek solitude: it may seem difficult to find in our heavily populated world, but solitude serves as an essential component of prayer. Jesus often withdrew to solitary places to pray and listen to the Father. Finding moments of solitude away from distractions can create an environment conducive to hearing from God. Mark 1:35 recounts, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”
6. Pray for discernment and wisdom: James 1:5 encourages us to ask God for wisdom, and He will give it generously. We should prayerfully seek God’s wisdom and discernment as we listen for His voice. Discernment is our ability to perceive, understand, and judge things clearly, especially those that are things that are neither obvious nor straightforward.
7. Be patient: Cultivating the habit of listening to God doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and patience. Habakkuk 2:3 reminds us, “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”

By incorporating these principles into our prayer life, we can foster a deeper awareness of God’s voice and experience the joy of communing with Him in a more profound way.

Remember, God desires to speak to His children, and as we seek Him with a listening heart, He will guide each of us and draw us closer to Himself.

The disciples viewed prayer of such great importance that they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. In Matthew 6, we see Jesus respond:

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬-‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I hope that this 7 biblical principles help you thrive and flourish in your prayer life. What practical tips do you have for deepening our prayer lives?

I am deeply encouraged by our church’s focus on strengthening our prayer lives. It has been a tremendous blessing. In what ways do you feel supported in your prayer life?

Tell somebody about Jesus today!

With Prayerful Blessings,

Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™