I know you try to hear God, but are you listening?

I have come to a stark realization in my prayer life. I don’t listen enough. I was thinking about how most people will say that you need to talk to God more, and what they mean is prayer. But what is talking? Do they mean to only talk at God, or do they mean you should talk with God? Talking is conversing, a two way conversation. We are all pretty good at our own side of the conversation. We know what to ask for, what to be thankful for, or what we should be talking about, but we don’t always give the due time for the response.

I know I’m guilty of this. I have worked on being more self-aware and cognizant of how truly blessed I really am and all the little ways in which God is in my life, without my asking, but I don’t let God have the opportunity to speak back very often. Sure, we pray often, and many times there is not the opportunity for pause, reflection, or silence, but communication with the Lord should not be a text message, or tweeting @God. We need an actual phone call, a visit to Him, to actually have time for the response. So our phone call (our prayer) needs to include time to listen, to listen for the still and soft voice of God. Even better is to visit Him. Go and see Him in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Spend those precious moments in silence searching for Him. He will find you.

Believe me, this is not an easy task in our hustle bustle world today. And even still, knowing how God speaks to you is no easy discernment. The Holy Spirit reaches out to us all in so many different ways; some big and inspiring, others through gentle thoughts and feelings. But if we are only sending our one way text to God in prayer, we are not leaving room for His answer. God loves you anyway. He will always reach back out to you. But we all know that a call or a visit is way better than a text or a tweet, or a Facebook message. The simple connection of two voices and minds can not be replicated any other way. Take some time and listen.