How to Pray Week Five - Chapters 9 & 10: Listening, Confession & Reconciliation

 

How to Pray Study Guide Questions: Chapters 9-10

Week 5 Yield (pt. 2)

Read:

Chapter 9 Listening

Chapter 10 Confession & Reconciliation

Key verse: “Give us today our daily bread” – Matthew 6:11

Summary points

· We are designed to walk and talk with God

· Slow down, Soften up

· When listening to God, remember ABC: Advice, Bible, Common Sense Questions

Questions

Q. Do you feel like your connection to God’s voice is like “wi-fi”, “cell phone” or “snail mail”?

Do you find it’s obvious when God is speaking to you?

I am not sure what the differentiation is between all those different connections. I find it obvious when God is speaking to me. It is a “movement of the heart” that is undeniable.

Q. Do you experience hearing God’s voice in a specific way? If so, how?

I find I experience it in all the ways that Grieg describes in the book: Scripture, dreams and visions (the wild dream about the man walking across the street with my coat on and then seeing him walk across the street the next day), counsel and common sense, personal reflection (loved what he said about doing something else and it comes together -thus why I have my best times of listening after my time with God and on a “reflection” walk around the block), and action (and it reminded me of the whole sequence of events in finding Steve Hawthorne at a church in Lake Oswego and going to Thailand as a result and getting to know George more deeply – all following that time of “silence” with God that I mentioned last week),  I believe God is CONSTANTLY trying to speak to us, but we don’t bother to listen. “Is the reason we’re not still/to hear you speak/because we don’t believe you will?” (lyrics from “In Stillness and Simplicity” by Michael Card).

Q. What practical actions could you take this week to make time for listening to God?

I try to have a “listen and obey” time every day. Lately, I have been doing a walk after my time with him stilling, and he speaks just as Grieg describes on page 161-162 giving my mind a “little space to wonder.” I loved that he said, “Cognitive psychologist and neuroscientist explain that these sorts of activities switch the brain onto its ‘default mode,” a state in which we are better able to access our subconscious, connect disparate ideas, and solve nagging problems…Overthinking is not productive. Intensity and earnestness rarely attract the Holy Spirit. We may well become more receptive to the whisper of God by occupying ourselves with less spiritual activities” (p. 161-162). I also find walking the labyrinth up at the hospital has been a great time of listening as I come to the center and “receive” what he is to tell me.

Q. How can we encourage one another to “keep our hearts soft” in the busyness of our daily lives?

Testimony of what God is doing in a through me with Centering Prayer, listening and obeying. Stories are always great. I also think creating space for others to listen with me. I do that when I sit with another in spiritual direction. We have a time of listening usually. Books: Hearing God and God Guides.

Do It

Practise the Lectio Divina. You might like to explore the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5:13-16. Remember to:

· Read it – Familiarisation

· Explore it – Imagination

· Pray it – Conversation

· Enjoy it – Celebration

My Suggested Resources

Listening to God:

 

·   Hearing God by Dallas Willard is the BEST biblical case for God speaking today.

·   A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Eliot – great biography of Amy Carmichael – Hero of listening.

·   God Guides is a sweet book with 52 stories by a missionary in India who learned to listen and obey.

 

Examen Prayer

·        Here is the “Rummaging for God” mentioned on p. 173: https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/rummaging-for-god-praying-backward-through-your-day/

·        Podcast: Fr. James Martin Examen Podcast (He has a weekly message and intro to the Examen every time. The actual Examen starts about 3:20): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-examen-with-fr-james-martin-sj/id1346804716

·        App: Reimagining the Examen App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reimagining-the-examen/id1065042173

·        My Day before Election Day Examen of 2016: https://carolhomeschool2.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-prayerful-review-of-my-day.html