Listening

I strive hard to listen to God's will for my life and know it's something I'll get to practice for the rest of my life but it's something I really do try to practice on a daily basis. The devotional I'm reading lately called Jesus Calling by Sarah Young is an amazing help in this area. It's so true the more I listen to and act on God, the more I feel his peace and presence. Which can sometimes feel like my lifeline on a hard day.

There have been some major decisions in our life that we have prayed about and felt God's leading very clearly. Those decisions even as hard as they have seemed at the time, such as getting married, deciding where to go for medical school, residency, buying our house, have all had clear answers for us from God that there really was no room not to listen.

But sometimes listening to God in the small things is almost harder than the large things. When you feel He's calling you: to share your experiences with someone else, go help out a friend, show up somewhere you don't feel like, stop to pray and take the time to spend sitting in silence with Him instead of rushing around, saying no in situations you find it hard to, saying yes in situations you find it hard to. Sometimes the hardest time to hear God is when it feels like the decision we make won't be monumental and therefore wont matter to Him or to anyone else. It can be tempting to think: if it's not some life altering major decision, maybe it doesn't really matter what I do.

But it does. Whether He has an amazing plan through the action of faith in my decision to choose what He has for my life, or whether it's simply to grow my character and practice the art of choosing God's will over my own. After all, practice makes perfect and we never know the choices we will be faced with later than may be easier to hear God in when we have made it a habit to listen to and choose God's will in our lives.

I also know that when I do listen to God and choose His will over mine it feels like coming upon a cool refreshing beautiful resort in the middle of a dry barren land I've been traveling through for days. The amazing severity of his peace and presence I get to experience through the choice to trust him is breath taking in the moment and so refreshing.