How to Pray Article Series: How Can I Listen To What God Is Saying To Me? (Part 1)
Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010
by Babes Tan-Magkalas
http://www.stjosephsite.com
One question I often encounter about how to pray is: how can I listen to what God is saying to me? In order to answer the question, we need to be aware of the different ways through which God communicates with us.
I don't know if any of you have read the book "God Guides" by Mary Geegh. Mary was a missionary in India for 38 years and in this book she tells of her experiences about listening to God.
She would obey even if what she was asked to do seemed strange. I remember one story she was telling about a fellow missionary whom she was at odds with.
When she asked God what to do so that they would reconcile, she heard that inner voice' tell her, "Give her an egg". And she did exactly that. She gave her colleague an egg, half apologizing for what seemed to be a rather strange, irrelevant act.
Well, it turned out that her colleague needed exactly one more egg so that she could feed her family that night and she was wondering where she could get one. And this is just one experience that Mary talked about in her book. There were many more.
The first time I read her book, I wished I could hear from God in the same simple and natural way that she did. Then later, I realized that God speaks to us in so many ways.
One way is through that "inner voice" inside us. Some refer to it as the Holy
Spirit. Others describe it as a small voice. From my experience, I call it a voice without a voice'. It's like a thought that just comes to your mind but there is a certain peace or calm that surrounds it.
God also speaks to us through our conscience. Through our conscience, He speaks to us about what is right and what is wrong.
God also communicates with us through daily events that happen in our lives.
For example, we get a job offer out of the blue that changes our career direction. Somebody we haven't heard from for quite a while calls us. We can learn much simply what God is saying by observing what transpires around us.
Another way that God speaks through us is through our pain. As C. S. Lewis said: "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." It is oftentimes when we hurt that we hear what, in our pride and self-sufficiency, we would otherwise never bother with.
When we're flat on our backs in bed or in pain, we slow down and tend to listen, we ask deeper questions. Our pain can lead us to God.
God also uses other people to speak to us. Sometimes we find the answers to our questions while listening to a homily during Sunday's mass. Or somebody tells us something we don't want to hear but need to.
God can also communicate with us through our dreams, through nature or his physical creation and in many other ways but most importantly, He speaks to us through His Word. Much of the listening is simply taking to heart what God is telling us through His written Word, the Bible. Much of the listening is in soaking ourselves in the wisdom of the Scripture.
God communicates with us in our everyday life, sometimes, we are just not aware of it. Open up your heart and mind to God so that you will be able to communicate with Him better, and also to have a closer relationship with Him. Part two of this two part series will discuss how we can listen to what God is communicating to us.
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