Where Is the One We Seek: Fourth Week

May 12th, 2014 Posted in writing

In the gospel of John, Jesus says that those who belong to him will hear his voice. To hear his voice, though, we have to be listening for it and want to hear it. Otherwise it may get crowded out by all the other voices that come to us every day: voices that may give us useful information or good advice but may just fill up the air with white noise and distract us. Jesus wants us to hear his voice, and so does God the Father, who said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

Prayer is a wonderful place to hear that voice, especially if we realize that prayer is not just the place where we tell Jesus all the things that are on our minds and ask for all the things we need but is also the place where we let Jesus speak to us about the things that are on his mind and allow him to make his requests of us. It’s the place where we invite Jesus to speak.

And we have a good start on knowing what Jesus wants for us and for our world because he has revealed it in his teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection. We have his message to us in the New Testament (a good place to begin our prayer) and through the fundamental faith of the Church, handed on to the apostles.

We will likely hear Jesus’ voice in our own unique way. We may even be surprised at what he says to us and asks of us, because, as one person put it, Christ’s voice is meant to “comfort the afflicted” AND “afflict the comfortable,” and we in need of both comfort and challenge as we go through life.

But whatever we may need to hear most from Jesus at any given time, we will hear it if we open our hearts and genuinely listen.

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