Prayers

Dialogic Prayer

by Terry Barlow
08/17/18
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It’s so easy for our practice of  dialoguing with God to lapse into our own monologues to God.  In fact that is the tendency of things if left to themselves, unless we deliberately and with intentionality counteract that tendency through the renewed discipline of listening to God’s still small voice.  The first part of our prayer time to be scrapped almost always seems to be the listening time.  That is probably because it is the time that requires the most faith.

After listening we must then, of course, do something about what we hear.  There is a time to act upon it.  In this way we are ensuring that our dialogic relationship with God will thrive, but not only our relationship with God, also our relationships with others.  The holy habit of listening, thankfully, spills over into other relationships as well.  It carries over automatically.  The better listeners we are before God the better listeners we are for others.

"Hear, O Israel, The LORD our God is one God."  (Deutoronomy 6, v.4) )The emphasis here for our purpose is on the first word.  Even all of the ten commandments flow from that place and position
of hearing.