Hello, my friends! I have a confession to make. I just didn’t know what to write for this column. I’ve asked my traveling companions for ideas, I’ve looked through recent sermons, I’ve prayed for guidance. And nothing… So what does one do when the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak? One writes about listening. Admittedly, my husband laughed when I told him what I decided on for the topic of this Reflections column, but then he said, “Yeah, you did struggle with this one more than usual. Maybe that IS a good topic.”
So how does God talk to you? There are so many ways to hear God’s wisdom and guidance. The first and most common is feeling that little nudge, that quiet voice. Another is to meditate on the Scriptures. I really like centering prayer — a meditative way of praying and being open to hearing God’s voice. Perhaps you have been blessed (?) by hearing God speaking in a louder way — “Do this!” or “Don’t do that!” I put the question mark there, because frequently what God asks is awkward or difficult. Yet, if you respond, you can almost always find a reason and a blessing within it.
But the question that I field most often is the one where someone has been praying over a big issue — a life-threatening diagnosis, a major job change, a relationship question. They will say “I’ve been praying and praying and haven’t gotten an answer! What am I doing wrong?” And then they’ll go to the scriptures and find something like 1 John 5:14-15: “14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us —whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.” They’ll feel like they’re doing something wrong in this whole “Christian thing”. But prayer isn’t just a wish list that you’re writing to Santa. Yes, these are big things in your life, but maybe God has a different answer for you than you’re expecting.
I’ve seen an entire community pray for a young person with a life-threatening disease and she was miraculously healed (in fact, I believe the only one to date who has survived rabies). And… I’ve seen an entire community pray for a young person with a life-threatening disease and the young person died. Why does God answer one and not the other? I wish I knew. That is one of the questions that I have waiting to ask God when I leave this world. Unfortunately, God’s answer is sometimes “No,” or the one that I find even more difficult, “Wait…”
Yet I know with a certainty, that God hears us and God is working in the world today. And at some point, we all have to rest with the knowledge that God hears us and is working through all things for good… even when we don’t understand it.
Keep praying. Keep seeking God’s guidance. Listen when you hear God’s voice. And may God bless each of you today! Amen!
— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Kelly Jahn is pastor of the Juda Zion and Oakley Union United Methodist Churches.
