Daily Archives: January 14, 2008

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 Living Christianity  is making one’s life

an exercise of humility, repentance and heavenly

affection.         William Law

 

Oftentimes a poor broken-hearted one bends his

 knee, but can only utter his wailing in the

language of sighs and tears.       Oswald Chambers

 

 

 

This is a new day.  This is another day to walk with God.  Today my desire is to let Him continue His work of purification in my life.  I am discovering that joy and pain are so closely intertwined in my walk with God that I can hardly tell the difference.  He is answering my prayers.  I am so thankful.  I only wish it would be at nobody else’s expense.  But I know that God is so big that somehow … I don’t know how, but somehow, He can use my own weakness and mistakes even in their lives.   It’s true because He is God.  Lord, You have the liberty to be Who You are, in my life, and in the life of others!

The Value of Listening

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These thoughts have challenged and broken my heart today.  God is good.  He answers our prayers for brokeness. 

“Too many people underestimate the power of listening and prayer.  Listening to me builds trust. When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice, you have not done what is most needed and most helpful. Please listen—and pray. When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel the way I feel, you have trespassed holy ground. You have not walked in my shoes. Please listen—and pray. When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problems, you have interfered in a holy process, strange as that may seem. Please listen—and pray. All I ask is that you listen. Not talk or do—just listen. When you do something for me that God and I need to do, you contribute to my fear and feelings of inadequacy. Please listen—and pray. When you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and begin to be healed by the Spirit of God. Please listen—and pray. Remember, these are holy, epiphanic moments of the soul. So please listen and just hear me. If you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn—and I’ll listen to you.—Anonymous

Lord, thank you for the trials that bring me to brokenness and press me in to You. Please give me eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to understand your ways that I might turn and be healed. Unless you do, I cannot repent in brokenness. Thank you for the gift of holy moments and healing tears that brings me to your feet in brokenness—that makes room for your grace to forgive, comfort, heal, deliver and transform me—that makes room for more of you in my life. Continue to pour out your Holy Spirit upon me that I might be free to worship and serve you in greater purity of spirit and truth. In your Name, Jesus. Amen.”

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“A Good Listener:

  1. listens with with spiritual ears open, hearing and understanding the
      spirit beneath the words;
  2. listens with the heart and mind still and the mouth shut;
  3. listens with no personal agenda;
  4. listens with compassionate spiritual eyes, maintaining involved eye
      contact;
  5. listens with a compassionate heart;
  6. listens with a committed heart;
  7. listens with attentiveness;
  8. listens without judgment;
  9. listens without fear;
10. listens with faith, knowing that the Spirit of God is at work to will and
      do according to His good purpose;
11. waits patiently, quietly and prayerfully through times of silence, making
      room for the unfolding of things previously too deep and too painful to
      even know or express;
12. counts it a privilege to witness a soul in the process of transformation,
      even when it doesn’t look like it;
13. offers to explore options;
14. offers to pray when the time of tears and sharing ends;
15. consoles with words of comfort and confidence in the faithfulness of God,
      which is usually all anyone needs to hear;
16. waits to give advice until asked;
17. offers a hug;
18. recognizes that these are holy moments of eternal consequence;
19. keeps all holy moments completely confidential.”