Opinion column

Lent – taking time to listen to God

Regular contributor James Knight urges us to take time to listen to God during Lent, and see what abundant blessings He has in store.

Lent is the period during which we make personal sacrifices to give regard to and praise for the astounding sacrifice Christ made for us on the cross. Our most precious resource in life is time, and I have found that spending our time in quietness, listening to God, is the most valuable thing we can give up for Him, because it is also the most internally beneficial part of the day for us too.
 
Taking time each day to sit silently in praise, and hear what God wants to say to us, is essential in enabling us to be focused enough to 'Seek first the Kingdom of God'. We can only properly seek if we devote time to listen to what God wants to say to us, because we can be sure that God wants to bestow more blessings in our lives than even our own heart’s desire.
 
I love St. Paul's promise in Ephesians 3:20 that in Christ we are "able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think." It's one thing to be promised that we can do more than we will ask to do, because often we don't speak up for ourselves enough in supplication to God. But to be told we are able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we can even think - well, if you consider that, it's absolutely mind-blowing.
 
It means that even if we were to spend hours, weeks, even years contemplating the very highest abundance we can imagine, it still wouldn't be exhaustive enough to capture what Christ can do inside us on our journey with Him if we let Him. It's so good, we can't even comprehend it.
 
That's why having daily quiet time and inviting God to speak to us is so important - He can, and will, impart abundant growth, wisdom and clarity to us that we don't have the capacity to capture by ourselves. What a wonderful thought that is to contemplate at this time of year; that with the Holy Spirit living inside us, we are being promised gifts and treasures that we cannot possibly think and comprehend without Christ's input. 

The image is courtesy of pixabay.com

This article has also appeared in Good News for Norwich and Norfolk, published by Network Norfolk

James Knight is a local government officer based in Norwich, and is a regular columnist for Christian community websites Network Norfolk and Network Ipswich. He also blogs regularly as ‘The Philosophical Muser’, and contributes articles to UK think tanks The Adam Smith Institute and The Institute of Economic Affairs, as well as the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC). 

The views carried here are those of the author, not necessarily those of Network Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users.