Silence is golden

God speaks in silence.

It's hard to hear God when we're talking or our minds are drowning in a flood of thoughts about everyday life.

As I have mentioned in other posts, I have long had an interest in listening prayer or contemplative prayer.  It makes sense that the best way to know what God wants is to spend time listening to him.

This week, I had the pleasure of hearing Pastor Jim Cymbala of Brooklyn Tabernacle Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., speak about the importance of listening prayer in his own ministry.  His church is a model of a praying church with thousands attending the weekly prayer gathering.

Listening prayer has become so important in Jim Cymbala's ministry that it guides his preaching and counselling.

He says that he no longer preaches with notes, preferring to immerse himself in the scriptures and to listen to what God wants him to say.  He will open his mind to what the Holy Spirit is telling him as he preaches.

It is the same with his approach to counselling.  He says the Holy Spirit indicates to him when he should be quiet and when he should speak.

I am growing in listening prayer.  I am not at Jim Cymbala's level.  But, as I have said before in this blog, I have for some years been using a journal to ask questions of God and receive what I believe are his answers - always in line with scripture.

But there are other ways, too.

In her book Listening to God, Joyce Huggett writes about an old man in her church in Nottingham, England who described his own experience to her.  He and his wife would get up at 6 a.m., read the Bible together, pray and then spend time listening to God in silence.  They would jot down the God-thoughts that popped into their minds - instructions, challenges and directions.

"They determined to obey to the best of their ability," she writes.  "Because of this rekindling of spiritual awareness, life opened up for them in a new way."

Spiritual creativity flourished in their lives and words came for deep conversations with friends who did not know God.

For many of us, silence seems threatening.  We feel we should be doing or saying something.

But, for Christ's followers, it can be golden if we have listening ears.