seeking god's voice

Seeking God’s Voice
“Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; And attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, For You will answer me (Psalm 86:6-7). One of the things I often hear, is why isn’t God, answering my prayer? Have you ever called on the Lord for His guidance on some issue, yet couldn’t discern what He wants you to do? We can’t always know why God doesn’t make everything clear when we seek His help, but there are a few things that we can do to help prepare us to hear from Him when seeking His voice.
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1) Surrender. First of all, if we have not fully yielded ourselves to the Lord, our hearts will remain set on our personal agendas and desires. If that is the case, we’ll have difficulty perceiving God’s will (James 4:3).
2) Seek Cleansing. We must ask God if there’s anything hindering our prayers. If He brings something to our mind, we must immediately repent and seek forgiveness through confession (1 John 1:9).
3) Study Scripture. God commits to answering our prayers if we ask according to His will (1 John 5:14-15). We must honestly consider whether or not our request aligns with God’s will as revealed in Holy Scripture.
4) Meditate. Scripture says God’s Word is a light to our path! It also tells us, the more we think about the truths of Scripture, the clearer the way will become (Psalm 119:105).
5) Wait. This is often the most difficult step of all, God promises to act on the behalf of those who wait (Isa. 64:4). This means we must resist the urge to run ahead of God by trying to fix things ourselves or manipulate the circumstances to get our desired outcome.

Friends, rather than letting uncertainty cause you to become anxious or fearful, consider these steps. Then try looking at your situation as an opportunity to trust our loving, all-knowing God who promises to work all things for our good (Rom. 8:28).
Grace and peace always,
Fr. Greg+

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