Stop, Look And Listen

Stop, Look And Listen

It wasn't until I was about 24 or 25 years old that I learned the correct way to pray. Don’t get me wrong, I was properly humble and I understood prayer but my prayer life was missing something.

My prayer was a monologue.

Philippians 4:6

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

Simple enough, isn't it? Just tell God what you want. Yet, I was overlooking the most important part of prayer. Prayer is not a dissertation ... prayer is a conversation. I wasn't allowing God to speak back to me. I would pray, make my requests known, say amen and go on my way.

Somewhere in my 20's, I read a book by AW Tozer called “The Pursuit Of God”. In his chapter entitled “The Gaze Of The Soul”, he wrote about listening to God when you pray. I was dumbfounded! How could I overlook something so vital to my relationship with God?

My prayer life began to change as it became a two-way dialogue, instead of a one-way lecture from my mouth to God's ears.

Over time, I have learned to listen for God and I have found out why that is important. That’s the whole point of prayer, is it not? To get myself on the same page with God ... to make His will, my will and to make His desires, my desires.

That happens when we are listening, not when we are talking. If you pray with your Bible open and your eyes on His Word, your prayer life will begin to change the world around you. That’s really why we are praying in the first place, right?

Psalms 25:4-5

"Make me know Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day."