Listening For God's Voice
By Mary Wilder Tileston

      I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for He will speak peace unto His people.
      PSALMS 85:8

      Now, 0 my God,
      My comfort, portion, rest!
      Thou, none but Thou, shalt reign within my breast.
      Call me to Thee! call me Thyself--oh, speak,
      And bind my heart to Thee, whom most I seek!

      GERHARD TERSTEEGEN

      JUST as in prayer it is not we who momentarily catch His attention, but He ours, so when we fail to hear His voice, it is not because He is not speaking so much as that we are not listening. We must recognize that all things are in God and that God is in all things, and we must learn to be very attentive, in order to bear God speaking in His ordinary tone without any special accent. A man must not stop listening any more than praying when he rises from his knees. No one questions the need of times of formal address to God, but few admit in any practical way the need of quiet waiting upon God, gazing into His face, feeling for His hand, listening for His voice. "I will hearken what the Lord God will say concerning me." God has special confidences for each soul. Indeed, it would seem as though the deepest truths came only in moments of profound devotional silence and contemplation.

      CHARLES H. BRENT