“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil,” the Preacher wrote in his book of Ecclesiastes.
This past Saturday, there were a lot of things I could have been doing, but I participated in a prayer drive with a group from my church.
A prayer drive is where you walk or drive (or bike or run) through your community and pray for the people, places, events, and spiritual conditions.
We went to the playground where we will have neighborhood Bible clubs for children. We prayed at the school. We joined hands at the government buildings, the jail, a housing neighborhood, in each district of the reservation, and at the church.
I thought that the afternoon spent in prayer would help me make a list of the ministry activities and events I could accomplish during the summer. I came with an attitude of a fool, sacrificing just to get things done so I could cross them off my list.
God invited me there to listen.
An elder joined us for prayer. In my community, we would call her “Kunsi,” Grandma. After we made several stops, this dear woman shared this:
“When I take my coffee out on my deck in the morning, I go to meet with God. I give Him a hug. I tell him I am depending on Him. I read His words, and He tells me that all I have to do is stay close to Him. He is the vine. We are the branches. He will make us fruitful, no matter what season we are in.”
She gives Him a hug.
I thought of the suffering the woman had seen in her life, and I thought of the times that I knew of that she would have needed that heavenly hug. It made me think of my own spiritual poverty. How many times had I needed that hug from the Lord? How many times had I rushed right past it to get down to business? She had learned to sit and listen.
The Lord lamented when He told the prophet Jeremiah, “My people did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction…Every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to Me.”
When we returned to the church to share what the Lord had shown us during our prayer time, I did not share. I listened.
Some of the other ladies admonished us with this verse: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you…”
This summer, the Lord simply wants me to draw near and listen.
“Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, that He may heal us… after two days, He will revive us; on the third day, He will raise us up, that we may live before Him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord.”
Sarah Dixon Young 