When you pray, do you feel like you have to do all the talking?
Let me ask that another way, when you have finished talking—have you finished praying?
A large part of our prayer life should be listening. Prayer is a conversation with God. In a conversation all parties speak and are spoken to. There has to be both talking and listening, both giving and taking.
Think about this: when you are praying you are talking to the Creator of the universe—the one and only true and living God, He who has no beginning and no end. You are talking with the God, who when there was nothing but darkness in the entire universe, said “Let there be light” and light came. Actually, the light “BE-came.” Before that, light had never been.
Since prayer is conversation, it means that you are talking with God. He not only listens, He talks back.
The same God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, to Samuel out of the middle of the night, and to Paul on his travels along the Damascus road will speak to you. The God who spoke to Abraham saying, “I will make you the father of a great nation that will be a blessing to all men,” will speak to you. The same God will speak to you who spoke after the baptism of His Son, Jesus, saying that day “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17 ESV).
You have to listen! When God spoke to Elijah it was not in the hurricane, the fire, or the earthquake; it was in a still small whisper.
Don’t end your prayer when you are finished talking. You don’t hang the phone up on someone mid conversation do you? If you do, you will miss half the prayer—and the best part!
Gary Bailey