How to be a community who listens
In prayer, but also with one another
Listening is a difficult skill to master.
It’s easy to fake, simple to practice, but tricky to perfect.
You’ve heard of active listening, and that’s all well and good.
But I want to suggest that The Lord’s Prayer instructs us to be a community of people who listen to one another as well as to the movement of the Spirit.
The inclusive words of “our,” “us,” and “we” means that as we pray, we listen, and as we pray together, we listen together.
So how do we become a community of listeners???
The only way is to become a people who listen on behalf of others.
We don’t stop at interceding for others in prayer, but by listening for others in prayer. And then…we have to share what we have heard. We have to probe deeper, listen harder.”
And that means we have to talk with one another. We have to stop and say, “Hey, I was praying for you the other day and I felt like I heard…”
This could sometimes be a word, a phrase, an encouraging sentiment.
It could also be an admission that you haven’t heard anything yet (and don’t mistake silence for a “no”).
The point is to communicate and to listen for one another and to one another.
Practice makes perfect, right? (And perfect means “wholeness” not “without flaw”)
My prayer for today
Our Father, thank you for the people you have put in my life who have listened well on my behalf. Jesus, help me know how to listen for myself and for others when I pray. Spirit, close my mouth and silence my racing thoughts as I try to listen for you. Amen.
Remember
People like to hear that they are being prayer for, but they love to know definitively that they are being prayer over. Don’t discount ever letting someone know that you are praying for them and with them.