Listening to God

One of the most important things we can learn in Christian Science is to listen to God. God is speaking to us all the time, but how well do we hear what he is telling us?

When I first came to Plainfield, I thought I was a pretty good listener. I was good at listening to my teachers, my co-workers, and my family members, but I wasn’t that good at listening to God. I found that unless I am listening carefully for what God is saying, I can’t really count on doing anything right. As I grew in Science, that became a very insecure feeling, and I found that when I wasn’t listening for God, I was making mistakes. I was doing things incorrectly, doing the wrong thing at the wrong time; and it was becoming more and more painful. I am grateful that a Christian Science practitioner in this church was willing to help me learn to listen for God.

There is a statement in the Bible that has meant quite a bit to me in this regard. In Zechariah 2:13, it says “Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord.” One of the things it means to me is, don’t entertain the physical senses. For example, don’t sit around listening to music, don’t spend a lot of time watching television, don’t talk too much. I had to learn to stop being enamored by the sound of my own voice, but to stay quiet and peaceful and open my heart, because that is how we hear God. Mrs. Eddy writes in our textbook that “Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent.” ( S&H p. 89) I had to learn to silence the senses, and, as I did this, I found I was doing things better; I had a better idea of what needed to be done, a better idea of how to do things, and learned how to do them at the right time. I also find now that I have better and quicker healings; and with all that, I have a better, stronger sense of God’s presence. That is the greatest sense of peace and security anyone could ever have.