Tuning Into God: 4 Spiritual PracticesSample

Nearly every moment of every day, dozens of different demands compete for your attention.

Your boss says, “Do this now!” Social media screams, “Look over here!”  The people you love clamor for your time. With all these voices, it can be hard to hear the quiet leading of God.

Tuning into God is a spiritual discipline. It’s a muscle you need to flex in order to make it stronger. This plan presents four practices you can use to turn down the volume on the other voices that surround you and turn up the volume on God.

Listening practices are spiritual because they cultivate a different kind of hearing. As 1 Corinthians 2 says, God can’t be seen with normal eyes or heard with normal ears. God can only be revealed through the Spirit. 

You can practice tuning into God’s Spirit no matter where you are, including at work.

Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth century monk, learned to connect with God through his day-to-day labor. As he worked in the monastery kitchen, Brother Lawrence trained himself to view his work as something he was doing with God. While he washed dishes, he thought about how much he loved God and how much God loved him. This turned his work into an act of prayer – something that he and God were doing together.

Practice tuning into God through work:

• Think of one manual task you need to do today. It could be washing dishes, pulling weeds, folding laundry, or anything else you need to do. 
• Before you start this task, ask God to be with you in your work.
• Try to imagine the task as something that you and God are doing together.
• Listen for any new insights, ideas, or emotions that come to your mind while working.

Prayer: God, thank you for being with me in my work. May my everyday labor be a place where I can tune into you and feel your presence.

Further Exploration: Read this personal reflection on seeing work like Brother Lawrence did .