Listen to the Lord
Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to Joni and Friends.
The night is cold and dark, and it’s windy. Before entering the warmth of your house with your packages, you huddle against the frigid air to listen to your neighbor’s whistling pine trees and you gaze at the thin slice of moon smiling on the horizon. It’s December and your eyes scan the canopy of stars above to locate the winter constellations. You shiver, feeling swallowed up underneath the starry dome that seems to reverberate with a song. Yes, that’s right; you would honestly say you almost heard a song.
In a moment you know you’ll run inside with your packages. The lights in the kitchen will make you squint; phones will be ringing and the volume on the TV will be loud. But for now, in the quiet of the heart of winter, you listen.You dare not rush inside too quickly. Your soul is telling you to slow down and listen.
Friend, to “listen to the Lord” means to pause between the Christmas shopping and running in the house to unload packages. It means breathing a prayer of thanks heavenward for grace given, and asking maybe for fresh energy for the next task (maybe preparing dinner, answering phone calls, refereeing your two teenagers.) To listen to the Lord is to take a deep breath, focus your thoughts and hear. You can’t listen unless you hear the Word of the Lord. And you know where to tune into that, don’t you? God’s Word has plenty to say, and it will speak (and speak clearly) when you slow down long enough to listen.
For me, it means pausing when shifting gears from one task to the next. I dare not rush between jobs; my soul tells me to stop, thank God for what was just completed, and I have to ask for grace for what’s to be done next. To listen to Jesus (especially during the Christmas season) is to raise your spiritual antennae to discern God’s clear directional signal. I’ll often whisper, “God, what do you want me to do here? What do you want me to say? Where do I go with this? I need your grace.”
To listen in prayer is to mentally absorb divine instructions concerning the matters of the day. To listen is to take this day – this beautiful Christmas season – in hourly increments, not in one fell swoop. Before you write that letter or make that call, get in the car, or pick up your packages, before you run to that luncheon, or head to church for that meeting, STOP, take a moment, pause and listen. It just might be the greatest Christmas gift you could ever unwrap this beautiful season!
Friend thanks so much for these special few minutes we have been able to share together. And because this program is called Joni and Friends, please note that I would love to hear from you so drop me a line on Joni’s Corner at joniandfriends.org or you could always contact us at P.O. Box 3333, Agoura Hills, California 91376. And, as always, thanks for listening to Joni and Friends.
Previously aired as #6428 on 12/20/06 and #7471 on 12/20/10.
© Joni and Friends
