“Be still and know that I am God” (
Learning to Listen
On my second date with my wife, we went to a coffee shop for dinner. I wanted to get to know more about her. Being a complete introvert and nerd, I had a list of things I wanted to talk to her about. So I asked my first question and 45 minutes later, I said something else. My wife loves to tell me about her day, thoughts about our future and life together; and I love to listen to her.
Yet my prayer life with God had been quite different. Don’t get me wrong–I pray all the time and honor my relationship with God. Yet, when I pray, I do all the talking. There is nothing wrong with asking for things in prayer or thanking God for what He has blessed us with; but until recently, I never stopped to listen. Conversations are not one way. In the past two years, I have worked hard to limit my talking and improve my listening.
Jesus’ Example
Jesus began His public ministry with 40 days of withdrawal into the desert wilderness to fast and pray in silence and solitude. He began the day early in the morning quiet with His Father. Also, before His crucifixion, He was in prayer with His disciples. So if Christ feels He needs to spend quality time alone with God, how much more should we?
Throughout Jesus’ ministry of teaching, healing and discipling we see Him withdraw from the crowds again and again in order to be quiet and alone with the Father. This is the secret to how He stayed renewed in his Father’s love and empowered by the Spirit for what was to come. In quiet prayer, He listened to the Father and received discernment for everything else He would do. He even taught His disciples to follow this same attitude of listening.
“Because so many people were coming and going they did not even have a chance to eat, He said to them, ‘Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place” (
