The Listening Side of PrayerSample

Day 2: Eliminate Distractions

Especially for Western cultures this might be the hardest part about being able to listen to God. We have so many distractions and things that demand our attention that it can easily drown God out if we let it. 

Work, school, family, social media, friends, entertainment and hobbies all cry out for every ounce of our time. They may be perfectly good or innocent things that deserve our time, but we can make it into a problem if we don’t make room for God first. He is more than deserving of our undivided attention.

There are several great examples of this in the Bible. Jesus was often going off to secluded places by Himself to pray. Jesus loved all the people and crowds! He showed that by healing them, feeding them, and of course dying on the cross to make a way for them all to live forever. But He knew for Him to have that intimate relationship with His Father, it required Him to have alone time with Him, free of distractions.

When the prophet Elijah was afraid because of the death threats the queen had made against him, he ran far away into some mountains. God caused a strong wind that broke rocks, an earthquake, and a fire to happen, but He was not in any of those. After they passed, Elijah heard a still small voice, and then he got his instruction from God. That evil queen was trying to distract Elijah from his mission to draw the hearts of the people back to God. Her death threats were meant to throw him off course. God was teaching Elijah to listen for His voice amidst the chaos.

There will be some distractions when we try to listen to God that will be unavoidable. In those instances, we just have to be patient and wait it out like Elijah did. There will be other distractions that we have complete control over. We just have to be willing to take action. 

If you use the Bible App for your alone time with God but get distracted with texts or notifications, download your favorite translation and put your phone in airplane mode. If the phone is still too big of a distraction, put it away and pull out a good ole printed Bible. Whatever the case, make sure you can fully dedicate yourself to God so that you don’t miss that still small voice by thinking about something else.