Listen to God

One of the more important lessons I’ve been learning in this church is how to listen to God better. God is speaking to each of us all the time, and the question is, how much of the time am I paying attention to what He’s telling me? We’ve all been conditioned to listen to experts, whether it’s in our business or other places. We spend a lot of time listening to family members, and the advertising industry always tries to sell you something. I’ve been learning in Christian Science that unless I’m listening to God, I really can’t count on knowing what is true, and I really can’t count on doing anything right, and that is a terribly insecure feeling. So, I’m grateful that a teacher of Christian Science in this church taught me to develop the skill of listening to God. A statement in the Bible opened my eyes: Zechariah 2:13 says, “Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord.” This turned on a light bulb when I read it, and it meant to me that don’t spend time entertaining your senses; in other words, don’t sit around listening to music, don’t watch a lot of television, or talk so much. I’ve seen a lot of people get mesmerized by the sound of their own voice. There are many ways to get distracted so you can’t hear what God is telling you. I have been learning to stay quiet and peaceful and to open my heart.

Mrs. Eddy has written in our textbook, “Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent.”(Science and Health, page 89) When I do this successfully, I get the right ideas about what needs to be done and how to do it. Healings come more quickly and with better lessons for me, and I get a much better, stronger feeling about God’s presence with me. It has made a great difference in my life, and I’m very grateful to our teacher of Christian Science, who started teaching this to me. I am grateful to Mary Baker Eddy for giving us this tremendous Science, discovering it, living it, and giving it to mankind. I’m grateful to Christ Jesus for being an example for all of us because he spent a lot of time listening to God and did many wonderful, incredible things as an example for the rest of us.