Pastoral Care Ministries

And sometimes the loudest noise isn’t even around us. It’s within us.

Fear speaks. Shame speaks. Our past speaks. The opinions of others speak. We can carry old wounds and disappointments for so long that their voices begin to sound like truth.

In the middle of all that noise, what would it look like to slow down and listen to God?

Leanne Payne spent much of her ministry helping people understand the importance of listening to God and becoming attentive to His presence. In her book Listening Prayer she describes listening as an essential part of prayer and offers practical ways to develop a deeper life of prayer and discernment.

For many of us, prayer naturally becomes a time when we talk. We bring God our requests, tell Him what we’re worried about, ask Him for direction, and pray for the people we love. And there is nothing wrong with that. God invites us to bring our whole lives before Him.

But prayer is also relationship. And relationships involve listening.

Listening prayer isn’t about trying to make God speak or searching for some mysterious message hidden in every thought that crosses our minds. It is about becoming still enough to turn our attention toward God and becoming willing to receive what He may be showing us through Scripture, prayer, conviction, wisdom, or a growing awareness of His presence.

That kind of listening takes practice.

Payne places an important emphasis on discernment because not every voice we hear is God’s voice. Sometimes what we hear internally is shaped by fear, shame, past experiences, or our own desires. We can easily mistake our anxiety for God’s warning or our shame for God’s conviction.

This is why listening prayer must remain grounded in Scripture and in the character of Christ. We don’t simply assume that every impression is something God has spoken. Instead, we bring what we sense before Him with humility and ask whether it aligns with His Word and His character.

Does it lead us toward truth? Does it draw us toward Christ? Does it produce humility, love, repentance, wisdom, and dependence on God?

These are important questions to ask.

So what does listening prayer actually look like?

It can be much simpler than we might expect.

Find a quiet place. Open your Bible. Begin by thanking God for who He is and for what He has done. Bring Him whatever is weighing on your heart. Tell Him what you’re afraid of. Tell Him what you don’t understand. Ask Him for wisdom.

And then stop.

Instead of immediately filling the silence with more words, allow yourself to simply sit before God.

You might pray something as simple as, “Jesus, I am here. Help me become still before You. What do You want me to know today?”

Then wait.

Maybe a passage of Scripture comes to mind. Maybe you become aware of something God is inviting you to surrender. Maybe you recognize an area where you need to forgive someone or receive forgiveness yourself. Maybe you sense encouragement you desperately needed. Or maybe nothing happens at all.

And that’s okay.

Listening prayer isn’t successful because we receive an immediate answer. We aren’t coming to God simply to get information from Him. We’re coming to know Him.

One of Payne’s practical suggestions is keeping a listening prayer journal. You don’t need anything complicated. A notebook will do.

Write down the Scripture you’re reading. Write out your prayers. Write down the questions you’re bringing to God. Then, after you’ve become quiet, write down anything you sense God may be bringing to your attention. Hold it with humility and discernment rather than assuming that every thought is automatically God’s voice.

Over time, your journal can become a beautiful record of your relationship with God. You may begin to notice patterns, remember prayers that were answered, recognize Scriptures God repeatedly used to speak truth into your life, and see how He was leading you even when you couldn’t recognize it in the moment.

There will also be days when you sit in silence and don’t feel anything.

There may be seasons when God seems quiet.

That doesn’t mean you’ve failed.

We don’t practice listening prayer because we expect God to give us an answer every time we sit down. We practice it because we want to become people who know how to recognize His presence and remain attentive to Him.

Sometimes the greatest change isn’t that God becomes louder.

It’s that we become quieter.

The world will always have something to say to us. Fear will tell us we’re not enough. Our past will tell us that we cannot change. Comparison will tell us that we’re falling behind. Shame will tell us that we are defined by what we’ve done or what has been done to us.

But those voices don’t get the final word.

Jesus does.

Listening prayer gives us an opportunity to bring all of those competing voices into the presence of Christ and allow His truth to have the greater authority in our lives.

Maybe today you don’t need another answer.

Maybe you simply need to become still.

Put down your phone. Open your Bible. Take a few quiet moments. Bring your whole heart before Jesus, and then give Him space to speak.

“Be still, and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10

You don’t have to know exactly what to say. You don’t have to pray perfectly. You don’t have to force an experience.

Just begin by being present.

Jesus is already there.