Hearing His Voice #39

Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.

Mark 1:35

Silence is a rare commodity. That’s partly the fault of our increasingly noisy, sound bite–saturated world. But we can take a good bit of the blame too; we fill many open moments checking status updates, tweets, headlines, scores, and other bits of communication. We live in a generation with significant attention-deficit issues, and we rarely take time for long periods of quiet. That makes hearing God’s voice extremely difficult.

One of the necessary conditions for hearing His voice is quieting all the others. There’s no way to do that when we keep filling our eyes and ears with the innumerable messages swirling around us. God’s voice is in the mix, but we can hardly distinguish it if we are tuned in to all the rest. What are we to do? Like Jesus, we need to find solitary time—to get away from the chaos and commotion of the world and tune in to the Spirit. Quiet hearts can hear Him; distracted hearts can’t. It’s that simple.

Whatever it takes, find times to withdraw from your normal environment and get alone with God. Quiet your spirit and listen to His. Make it a regular practice. That isn’t easy when you have a demanding schedule, but easy isn’t the point. Hearing the voice of God is worth any sacrifice, isn’t it? Scripture repeatedly urges us to be still, to rest, or to quiet our hearts, and those who wrote such words were people who heard Him well. Deep in our redeemed spirits is the voice of the one who birthed us into new life. Only when we calm the storm of thoughts and words around us will we be able to discern His voice.

Lord, I don’t know when I can get alone to be with You. My schedule is packed; and even when I’m alone, I’m constantly thinking of things I have to do and problems I need to deal with. I’ll set aside time if You will meet me there and help me focus. Please reward my solitude with Your company.