December Week 2: Midweek Reflection

Learning to Listen With My Whole Attention

As I move through this week’s theme of listening, I am noticing that God often speaks through what is already in front of me. Familiar scriptures. A sermon that lands at just the right time. Resources I have seen before but never truly slowed down to absorb.

This week, I listened to Priscilla Shirer’s message Hearing God from The Belonging Co. The whole sermon centers on one core truth: God passionately desires a personal, ongoing relationship with His people, and one of the marks of that relationship is this simple reality from John 10:27: His sheep hear His voice, He knows them, and they follow Him. It is not just pastors or “super spiritual” people who can hear God. If I belong to Jesus, hearing His voice is part of my inheritance.

Alongside that message, I returned to The Bible Project’s series How to Read the Bible. It reminded me that scripture is a unified, Spirit-inspired story designed to lead me to Jesus. It is not just a rulebook to consult when I am confused. It is a living, layered, literary work that I am meant to reread with the Holy Spirit’s help, noticing patterns and connections over time.

Together, these two resources are helping me see listening in a new way. God has already been speaking. The question is whether I am present enough to notice.

What Stood Out to Me

A few ideas from this week settled deeply into my heart:

• When a sermon feels like it is “just for me,” or when a verse I have read dozens of times suddenly grips my heart, that is God speaking.
• The Bible, with all its writers, themes, and genres, remains a unified story because the Holy Spirit is the One weaving it together.
• God’s voice often comes through the familiar. He illuminates what is already in front of me instead of always giving something new.
• Scripture is meditation literature. I am meant to come back to it again and again, letting meaning deepen over time instead of expecting everything to be clear on the first read.

I have always been a reader at heart. Words on paper have a way of meeting me exactly where I am, offering clarity, comfort, or conviction at just the right moment. Last night, I opened a fortune cookie and found this message inside: “Cherish the moments of stillness and reflection; they offer clarity and peace to remember.” It stopped me for a moment because it fits so perfectly with my theme for December and the posture I am practicing this week. This entire month is about returning to center through stillness, listening, honesty, and alignment, and somehow this tiny slip of paper echoed all of it back to me. It felt like a quiet confirmation that God is speaking in ways I do not always expect, and that when my heart is tuned toward Him, even something as simple as a fortune cookie can reinforce what He has already been whispering.

These reminders shifted my focus. Listening is not only about chasing fresh revelation. It is also about honoring what God has already said and paying attention when He brings it back to the surface.

What This Reveals About My Patterns

As I paid attention to how I listen, a few patterns became clear:

• My mind drifts easily to thoughts that have nothing to do with what I am hearing, even when the teaching is meaningful.
• I lose focus quickly when my inner world is noisy or when I am emotionally tired.
• My spirit is willing to listen, but my attention is often divided.

None of this means I am disqualified. It simply shows me where my listening muscles need more training.

What God Is Inviting Me to Practice, Pause, and Release

Here is what I sense God inviting me into this week:

Practice

Strengthening my concentration. Treating my attention like a muscle that can be trained through small, consistent choices to return my focus to Him.

Pause

The urge to multitask internally when I should be receiving. The habit of letting my mind wander into plans, worries, or random thoughts while my ears are still technically “listening.”

Release

The belief that distraction makes me a failure. Instead, I can notice when my mind has wandered, gently bring my attention back to God, and keep going with grace.

God is inviting me into deeper stillness, steady listening, and intentional presence. Discernment does not appear overnight. It grows as I keep returning, keep listening, and keep trusting that He is speaking even when my attention feels imperfect.