Listening By Reading The Bible - Listening for Wisdom

“but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night…” (Psalm 1:2, ESV)

“How I delight in your commands!
How I love them!
I honor and love your commands.
I meditate on your decrees.” (Psalm 119:47-48, NLT)

“Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.” (Joshua 1:8, NLT)

How can we learn to hear God’s voice?

We open our Bibles (or Bible apps) and let God’s Word saturate our whole being. Listening to God’s voice always starts with the Bible. The book Atomic Habits has shown me how important habits are to our everyday lives. If you start by just setting your alarm and opening the Bible, you have made progress. “If you can get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done” (Atomic Habits, page 16). Habit stacking (attaching a new behavior to an old one) can help. For example, quiet your mind and listen to God’s Word while doing the dishes. While folding laundry, thank God and pray for each child whose clothing you are folding.

The psalmist describes the righteous person this way: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2, ESV). This word “delight” (hephets in Hebrew) is related to a word that can mean to bend or be inclined towards. As we listen to God speak through Scripture, we need to lean toward hearing from God through the pages of Scripture, as we intentionally spend time seeking the Lord.

As we seek to hear God, we must look for what he said to the original audience so we understand what he is saying to us. We seek to know God not for what we want him to say (in order to fit our own agendas). We desire to know the who behind it all: the One who delights in us. We are seeking to learn his voice.

As we pour out our hearts and minds into the pages of Scripture, we will see how God inclines his ear to us and leans into those who fear him. Plants and trees often grow toward the direction of light. There is a scientific term for this: phototropism. “Trees do not sense which way is up; rather, their growth follows the direction from which light comes. This phenomenon is called phototropism, . . .bending toward the light.”^a

Let’s keep an awareness of God always at the forefront of our minds—bending toward his delight and learning to hear his voice. As you do this, you will gain confidence in hearing his voice and grow in wisdom and obedience to him.