Week Fourteen
Hearing the Father’s Pleasure in You Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 or Genesis 15:1-6, Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23 or Psalm 33:12-22, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, Luke 12:32-40 When you read this Gospel passage, which phrase continues to ring in your ears as you walk away from it? “But know this: if the owner of the house had known at […]
Week Thirteen
Hearing the Truth in Love Hosea 11:1-11 or Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23, Psalm 107:1-9, 43 or Psalm 49:1-12, Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12:13-21 “You fool!” Can you think of something you’d hate to hear more from the mouth of your Father in Heaven? Of course, you and I would cover over His pain and compassion as […]
Week Twelve
Hearing the Lord’s Prayer Anew Hosea 1:2-10 or Genesis 18:20-32, Psalm 85 or Psalm 138, Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19), Luke 11:1-13 When I pray nowadays, I sometimes begin with something like the disciples’ request from this Gospel text. “Lord, teach me to pray.” In doing this, I surrender even my prayer, my prayer language, to Him […]
Week Eleven
Choosing “One Thing” Amos 8:1-12 or Genesis 18:1-10a, Psalm 52 or Psalm 15, Colossians 1:15-28, Luke 10:38-42 I remember what it was like, before He opened my ears to His voice, before I could know His presence through His gentle words to me. I remember, and I don’t like it at all. When I didn’t […]
Week Ten
Hearing the Father’s Heart for Us Amos 7:7-17 or Deuteronomy 30:9-14, Psalm 82 or Psalm 25:1-10, Colossians 1:1-14, Luke 10:25-37 Moses said to the people of Israel, “The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the […]
Week Nine
Courage to Hear the Hard Stuff II Kings 5:1-14 or Isaiah 66:10-14, Psalm 30 or Psalm 66:1-9, Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16, Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Sometimes I grieve for our church. I grieve because we have decided that some things that the Father has to say to us aren’t worth our attention. I understand that way of […]
Week Eight
No Going Back II Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 or I Kings 19:15-16, 19-21 Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20 or Psalm 16, Galatians 5:1, 13-25, Luke 9:51-62 “The one who puts his hand to the plow and then turns back is not fit for the kingdom of God.” Harsh. Uncompromising. There is no shared ground between the Kingdom of […]
Week Seven
Learning Not to Fear Fear I Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a or Isaiah 65:1-9, Psalm 42 and 43 or Psalm 22:19-28, Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 8:26-39 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15) Because we will […]
Week Six
Jesus, Bring the Rain Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, Psalm 8, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15 One of the Christian bands I like to listen to is called “Mercy Me.” You may know them for their most famous song, “I can only imagine.” In a more recent album, they have a song called “Bring the Rain.” Here are […]
Week Five
Testing What You Hear Against Jesus’ Prayer Acts 16:16-34, Psalm 97, Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21, John 17:20-26 In the last few writings, I’ve been talking about how we might come to hear the Father’s voice better and, in one piece, some of the wonderful reasons why we might want to. This time, I’d like to […]
Week Four
Loving from a Heart Bigger Than Mine Acts 16:9-15, Acts 16:9-15, Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5, John 14:23-29, John 5:1-9 I had a hard time with this group of readings, deciding which text to write about, which one to allow to speak to us about the Father’s voice. As with the first reflection, there is such a […]
Week Three
Clearing the Decks, or, Crying out to the Father Acts 11:1-18, Psalm 148, Revelation 21:1-6, John 13:31-35 In these readings, we have as our Psalm one of the last five psalms, often called the “Hallelujah” psalms, because they all start with that word. (Hallelujah is the Hebrew for “Praise the Lord,” so some translations of […]
Week Two
We Were Made for More (Acts 9:1-6 (7-20), Psalm 30, Revelation 5:11-14, John 21:1-19) Hearing the Father’s Voice is a way of being in relationship to Him that I longed for without knowing how to express it. I tried a lot of methods to satisfy that desire. I learned a lot about meditation along the […]
Week One
What? It does all that? Acts 9:36-43, Psalm 23, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30 Why bother? I mean, we get along well enough with our worship and our daily lives don’t we? Why all this interest in hearing God speak? This wasn’t the first of these reflections that I wrote. It is the first here […]
Introduction
Synopsis and Outline “Hearing His Voice” is and invitation and a guide into a life of intimacy with God where His voice is no longer something foreign, but a deeply valued and often used gift. It consists of 14 weekly “chapters” which begin with a longer reflection (generally 700-900 words) followed by five shorter “daily […]
