Listening for WisdomSample

Listening with Confidence

There was a season of life after I experienced a betrayal of someone close to me when I had to begin to trust my instincts without questioning myself. I felt paralyzed and shaky in my beliefs because I had discerned incorrectly. I began to solicit approval or feedback for all my life decisions. I would end up more and more confused. After this big heartache and betrayal, I had to retrain myself to trust God’s voice in my life again. I had to stop trying to do what I thought others wanted me to do in a specific situation. I had to learn to ask God first by going to my Bible. I had begun to use other people, social media, or sermons as a crutch instead of doing the hard work of opening up the pages of Scripture. I had to regularly stay in tune with both what I wanted and what God was asking me to do.

We live in a day and age where it’s too easy to let social media guide us. The online world can be a huge distraction from our Bible reading. Thankfully, God has given us the power of prayer and access to the Holy Spirit so we can discern what to do when we’re tempted to let the internet sweep us away.

I did not cut out every wise voice giving me advice, but I did stop questioning everything I did. I knew that the more plugged in I was to the Spirit’s voice and the power of prayer (rather than online forums), the more I could glean wisdom in hard moments.

A similar dynamic is at play when I study my Bible. I’ve had to put strict phone habits in place during my Bible reading time. I have always found it hard to gain context from reading the Bible on my phone anyway. It doesn’t take much more effort to grab a physical Bible or to open my computer to use Bible study software that has access to commentaries. I cannot stress enough that proper phone boundaries can save your Bible study and help you feel more confident in God’s voice.

Friends, this year my word for the year is, “listen,” and you can’t listen if everything in your life is too loud. My life has been too loud, too busy, and I have had too many obligations. It’s time for me to strip everything away, to slow down, and to live that quiet life. I hope you will join me this month.

If you enjoyed this reading plan by Mikella Van Dyke, you can read more on this topic in her latest book Chasing Sacred: Learn How to Study Scripture to Pursue God and Find Hope in Him. Discover more at chasingsacred.com.