A Listening Heart

As we spend time with a close friend, we find ourselves sharing the things of our heart with our friend ... our secret sorrows, and also our secret joys. So it is with our friendship with God. It seems that we often find ourselves talking to God about our deep sorrows, and also about our great joys. That is actually when we pray the most often ... when we are in the depths of trials, and also when we are experiencing great joy that just bubbles out of us. And as we grow closer to God, we discover that He cares about everything in our lives, and so we begin to share more and more of the everyday, routine things of our lives with Him.

This is all good. But in any healthy relationship, there must be listening on both sides. We know that God hears our prayers and listens to the cries of our hearts. But do we take time to listen to God's heart?

As we start each day, do we take time to pause and listen to God? Do we want to hear what is on His heart for our day? Do we slow down enough and wait, and listen ... to look at the new day from His perspective? And as we go throughout the day, do we just go ahead with the busyness of life, or do we slow down in our hearts at various times throughout the day, and pause to listen to Him?

I pray that I will have a listening heart today, and everyday. There is no one else whom I would rather hear from than my Creator. I want to be tuned in to what is on His heart today ... to what He is at work doing today. I don't want to miss out on what is most important. I don't want to miss out on the secret things He is at work doing in our world.

"'My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,' says the Lord. 'And My ways are far beyond anything You could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than Your ways and My thoughts higher than Your thoughts.'" (Isaiah 55:8-9)