Quotes about Listening

Who can resist being around a person who suspends his thoughts in order to value yours?

Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, 'You're wrong.

It is much more important to cultivate the quiet, inward space of a constant listening than to always be approaching God for specific direction.

Specifically, in our attempts to understand how God speaks to us and guides us we must, above all, hold on to the fact that learning how to hear God is to be sought only as a part of a certain kind of life, a life of loving fellowship with the King and his other subjects within the kingdom of the heavens.

People are meant to live in an ongoing conversation with God, speaking and being spoken to.

A day shared with Jesus is a day of continuous conversation. We will learn to hear his voice.

But—for good reasons rooted deeply in the nature of the person and of personal relationships—his preferred way is to speak, to communicate: thus the absolute centrality of scripture to our discipleship. And this, among other things, is the reason why an extensive use of solitude and silence is so basic for growth of the human spirit, for they form an appropriate context for listening and speaking to God.

When the prophet Samuel was a young boy, Eli the priest gave him unerring advice on listening for the voice of God. It is a simple but profound prayer: "Speak, LORD, for Your servant hears" (1 Sam. 3:9). When we get up out of bed in the morning, among our first thoughts should be this: Lord, speak to me. I'm listening. I want to hear your voice.

Seek not to speak, but that you might have something to say.

To be simple, humble, and thoughtful as we listen to others and help them come to faith in the One who has given us life.

This is certainly true for those in professional ministry. In humility, every Christian leader is subject to the people to whom he or she ministers. This is, after all, what ministry is, professional or not—being subject to the needs of other people. That involves listening to them, being attentive to them. But if we become dependent on their opinions, we have ruined any chance of truly helping them, because now our primary concern is to gain their approval.

Ignoring our emotions is turning our back on reality; listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God.