So You're Not Hearing From God
I think one of the things I hear most often from other
Christians is that that their life is spiritually dry, that they are not
hearing from God. This is the same problem
honest atheists, agnostics, and seekers have too. Anyone who entertains the thought of a God,
is confronted with this problem sooner or later.
Some people are ushered into their faith in the crucible of
pain. They hit the dregs of life and
find in their need, that they have reached the end of themselves and they have
no choice but to cry out. When they do, they
are met with a voice coming back to them. Some people find that they are bored
with life and caught up in its little battles and start searching for something
deeper. And a voice clear and concise speaks something so profound to their
heart that they never forget it. Others
hear the voice of God coming to them through someone they love, someone they have
let into their inner life and they seek to find the source. Some hear the voice of God in the beauty of
nature, and they can’t get enough.
But what happens when
it is dry? You believe that there is something or someone out there and maybe
you’ve heard the voice before, but right now, you listen in vain. This can be a very painful thing for some
people. Others just say, I was wrong,
there’s no one out there. And they wander away from faith.
It is a problem at least as old as the Abrahamic religions
(and very assuredly much older), and lucky for us, people that have gone before
us have laid out the path. I have found the answer in the spiritual
disciplines. “Discipline” sounds hard, but it is really so easy. God made it easy, because he knew we would
have this problem.
I can tell you what works for me. I have taken the spiritual
disciplines that I have found laid out for me by other Christians and applied
them to my life, making them my own. If
I want to hear from God, I have to put myself in a posture to hear him. For most of us, the noise is first
external. The TV, movies, facebook, the
news. Turn it off. Pick up your bible,
pick something you heard in church or read about and find it. Or if you use to read the scriptures, and had
a favorite story or psalm, return to it. If you have no experience with the
scriptures and don’t know where to start, just open the bible and start
reading. If you are confronted with things that irk you, give it a chance. Try it a few times. In 12 step meetings, the
sober majority will tell you to give the meeting at least 6 tries before
calling it quits. Ask your questions of someone who is a little further down
the path than you.
I started getting up at 6:30 every morning, having a smoke
(I don’t recommend this part), getting out a devotional and reading it. Before long, this turned into praying, and
reading scripture. Sometimes I take a
break from life, schedule an hour on my calendar, and put on some good music
and curl up on the couch and listen for God in the music. Because I read my bible and listen to sermons
on Sunday, I know the voice of God and I can hear him when I listen.
After confronting external noise, we are confronted with internal
noise. Concerns about life, personal
hang ups (“this is a waste of time” might be hiding the message “I’m
unloveable.”) You’ve got to push your
way through it. Anything good is worth pursuing, give it an honest effort, and
I guarantee you, if you’re honest with yourself, God will show up.
It takes
time and intentionality, but these are concrete things you can do, and God will
be there, waiting for you. If you “show
up” by doing something concrete, by doing what you CAN do, God will show up too
– that’s what he does, he is the God of “showing up.” If you don’t believe it, read the scriptures.
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