One Mouth, Two Ears

Job Answers God
“I’m Ready to Shut Up and Listen 3 Job answered: 4 “I’m speechless, in awe—-words fail me. I should never have opened my mouth! 5 I’ve talked too much, way too much. I’m ready to shut up and listen.” – Job 40:2-5 (MSG)

When I was reading my Bible this morning, this is the verse that leapt off of the page at me. I immediately just thought, “Wow. How many times have I said that?!”

I don’t know why I do it, but I still catch myself doing it. Instead of praying for God’s will,like Job, I’m questioning, maybe even accusing Him. I carry on and on about what I need Him to do. I tell Him what others need. When did I become all-knowing?!

I’m not.

I need to remind myself to pray the way Jesus told us to. We are to acknowledge God for the holy, all-powerful, omniscient God that He is. We are to recognize him and be thankful for all He has done. We are to ask for His perfect will to be done. We should present to Him our hearts for the things that matter to Him.

God is not a magic genie, but sometimes, we tend to treat Him that way. We talk and talk and tell Him our laundry list of needs, we give Him no room to speak to us.

What I want is to be quiet and to hear from Him. People often say, “I can’t hear God talking to me.” But, do you ever get still enough to hear Him if He did? Because He does talk to us…quite often, actually. But, if you never shut up and plug in by meeting the Lord in that secret place, then you’re going to miss Him.

There’s a song that starts, “In the quiet, in the stillness, I know that you are God.” I love that song! That’s EXACTLY where God meets us. Yes, we are to bring him our prayers and petitions, but like we should do with any other good friend, we should pause and quietly wait for Him to speak back us. Prayer should be a conversation, not a monologue.

Father, forgive me for all the times I just came to You and unloaded. I wasn’t being a very good friend. Lord, please open my eyes to realize when I’m doing it and help me remember to just be still and spend some time just being with You and hearing what You have to say. There is nothing I could say that could measure up to one syllable from You. I love You. I’m going to be quiet now, so You can tell me what’s on Your mind.