Monday Missive #25

Listening

A Poem: Listening Rightly

Listening is hard!
So many voices,
All at once,
With possessive agenda,
Wanting us
To agree,
To believe,
To follow.

How to listen rightly?
How to know
Which,
Whom,
What,
Is right,
Or wrong,
Or neither?
Listening is hard!

Inside our soul
Lives His Spirit,
To guide,
To lead,
To discern,
To mark off lines
Of truth,
Beauty,
Goodness.
Showing us how to listen.

A Prayer: Listening to You Alone

Lord, quiet my soul,
Block out every distraction.
 Let me listen to you alone.
Let me know your mind,
That I might think like you.
Let me hear your voice,
That I might speak as you.
Let me have your eyes and ears,
To see and hear hurt like you.
Most of all,
Let me hear your heart,
That I might love like you.

A Passage: For Refection

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
— Galatians 5:16-17,22-23 NLT