The Hidden Habits That Help You Hear God
Especially when the world roars
In my very first year as a teacher of the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, I had to explain to the parents of a third grader why their bright daughter was still struggling academically. She had been wearing her cochlear implant for a year or two by then, and although her hearing was much improved, she was struggling with attending.
This student could hear many sounds all around her—the shuffling of materials, the air conditioning, other students playing outside, the faint buzzing of the one light over my desk. She could hear my voice, too, but without conscious attention to it, it just became part of the background noise.
If she could learn to attend to my voice above all others, I explained in the meeting, I was confident her academic performance would improve.
In the years since those days, I’ve become convinced that I have a similar attention problem when it comes to hearing the voice of God. There are many other sounds that compete for my attention, such as:
The sound of my to-do list
The sound of my fear and insecurity
The sound of society’s “shoulds”
The sound of my own anxiety
The sound of delightful but distracting entertainment1
The siren call of my own perceived self-sufficiency
All of this environmental noise can so easily pull my attention from Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who says “the sheep follow me because they know my voice.” (Jn. 10:4) If we claim to follow Jesus, we must first learn the sound of his voice, and then cultivate the habits necessary to pay attention to his voice in our lives.
God speaks to us in all kinds of ways: through nature, music, other people, the Holy Spirit, and through Scripture. The more time we spend in the Bible, learning what God is like, and in the gospels, getting to know the ways of Jesus, the more we will recognize God’s voice in our lives.
Many of us have depended on other people to interpret God’s voice for us. Although there is nothing wrong with spiritual mentors, we must do the work of getting to know God for ourselves. In her forthcoming book Surrendering Certainty, author Abby McDonald cautions:
“…when we rely solely on someone else to digest the words of God for us, we have a problem. Our growth will be limited, and we will restrict our confidence in our ability to discern God’s voice for ourselves.”2
Once we learn to recognize the sound of his voice for ourselves, we must actively listen for it and direct our attention to God’s movement in our lives.
One way we can hold space for the voice of God is with habits of silence and solitude. “Be still and know that I am God,” the Psalmist writes (Psalm 46:10). Even if you can only manage this for five minutes at a time, it’s worth doing. Author and pastor Rich Villodas reminds us of the point of silent prayer:
“At the core of silent prayer is the commitment to establish relationship with God based on friendship rather than demands (…) In basic terms, silent prayer is the practice of focusing our attention upon God through the simplicity of shared presence.”3
When I started this practice, I would get discouraged that I didn’t hear/feel/sense anything specific from God. But then I realized that peaceable companionship with God is never wasted.
Another key habit that can help us attend to the voice of God is choosing slow. In our culture of rush and hustle, choosing a slower path feels like a radical decision. We always have our eyes on the next thing, focused on checking off one more task on our to-do list, valuing our future moments more than our present ones.
But if God is found in the present moment, and we are perpetually rushing to the next, what richness are we missing? By choosing to do less and go slow, we can create the margin necessary to recenter our attention on God, our inner ears more attuned to his voice.
“In slowing down,” James Bryan Smith writes, “we can hear the Spirit whisper that we are loved, and then we begin to reflect the glory of the Christ who is within us.”4
In a world that competes for our attention, may we become the quiet, still, slow people of God, attuned to his Divine whispers.
Theologian Trevor Hudson once wrote: “We get to know Jesus Christ intimately, and to interact with him, primarily through the images, pictures, and thoughts in our mind.”5 If this is true, it’s worth exploring what pictures come to mind when we imagine God! My latest guest is
, and we talked about how the historical depiction of God as white and male has done more to harm than to help.Our conversation was thought-provoking and challenging, and may even make you uncomfortable! But spiritual growth often happens because of our discomfort, so I hope you’ll tune in. You can listen here and get the show notes here.
Something I wrote: 5 Reasons Moms Should Keep a Five Year Journal. I wrote this a while ago, and I’m now on my third journal and year 12 of recording a few sentences about my day. Do you keep a journal like this? Clearly, I’m addicted.
Something I read and loved: I got to read an early copy of Surrendering Certainty by Abby McDonald, and it is absolutely worth your time! Her words were a beautiful reminder that knowing all the answers doesn’t grow our faith, but trusting Jesus in the unknown sure does. This book is a balm to all the chronic over-thinkers, second-guessers, and control freaks (like me!) It releases TODAY and you can get your copy here.
Something I listened to: Feasting Always Follows Fasting on A Drink With a Friend podcast. What a great conversation between
and about the magic of Easter, and the importance of the liturgical calendar to our daily lives!Something I’m cooking: This Falafel Salad looks delicious, but I’ll be using couscous instead of bulgar.
This is the perfect time to share these phone wallpapers I made! They will remind you to keep cultivating those hidden habits that help us hear God’s voice in our lives. Bonus: these are beach scenes from our area of Southern California! Head over to my freebie page for this FREE download. (And just hit reply if you forgot the password!)
Until next time,
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To borrow Emily P. Freeman’s turn of phrase on her podcast “The Next Right Thing”
Surrendering Certainty by Abby McDonald, p. 64
Deeply Formed Life by Rich Villodas p. 23
The Good and Beautiful God, p. 332 of ebook
Seeking God by Trevor Hudson, p. 185 of ebook
The story about the girl hearing everything — but not knowing where to focus — was such a powerful picture.
It made me realize again: it’s not just about hearing, it’s about choosing what we give our attention to. And that’s often where I struggle — not the hearing, but the choosing.
Does that resonate with what you’re saying too? That it's a daily choice to tune in to His voice — even when everything else seems louder?
Thank you so much for this thoughtful and beautiful article. It helped me pause, reflect, and realign. 🙏
I love the reminder that "peaceable companionship with God is never wasted." In a culture that emphasizes productivity and activity (even in time with God, "doing" devotions was the phrase I grew up hearing), it helps to slow and still.