Wellbeing Thought for Friday 5th March 2021

Friday 5 March

The still, small voice

“My sheep listen to my voice.” (Jesus in John 10.27)

We are unlikely to hear God’s voice audibly. Rather, the God who has come to live in us wants to communicate to our spirit by his Spirit.

If we want to learn to listen to God we need to cultivate the spiritual discipline of silence (‘listen’ and ‘silent’ are anagrams!). It begins as an outward discipline but the goal is that it becomes an inward reality. Once we embark on silence we will notice the noise in us, which John Mark Comer describes as ‘a wild beast in desperate need of taming’.

Slowing down, Sabbath and solitude are essential for learning silence so we can hear the ‘still small voice’ of God.

Sometimes we can struggle to hear him because we haven’t yet learned to discern his still voice. At other times, God may have spoken to us, but we haven’t been listening! Perhaps we are looking for him to say something new, when he wants to bring us back to a previous statement we have ignored.

> Take some time to be silent. Welcome God’s presence. Notice if he is saying anything. If not, don’t worry – just enjoy his company.