Week 2: Listening to the Creator
The Creator’s Got This—He’s in Control
Week 2, Day 5
The Creator got things started, but didn’t just sit back and let it all spin out of control. He is still in control—a living and active God that has everything taken care of. In order to meditate on this truth today and listen to the Creator’s voice, we are going to go through the steps of the spiritual discipline known as Lectio Divina. This discipline can be practiced with any portion of Scripture. Before you start, spend some time in silence, preparing your mind to hear what God says to you through that passage of Scripture. Today, we want to pay special attention, listening to the Creator through His Word.
Read the chosen verses (Matt. 6:25-34, NIV, for today) four consecutive times. Each time you read it, you will ask a different question and will follow each step with another period of silence.
1. Read the passage listening for a word or phrase that jumps out at you. Savor and repeat the word without reflecting too much on it.
2. Reflect or meditate on the word or phrase while reading through the passage a second time. You might ask, “What is it in my life that needed to hear this word today?”
3. Respond. Is there an invitation or challenge that God is calling you to? What is your response to this invitation? Perhaps this scripture has touched a place of pain, frustration, or anger. We can pour out these feelings in the safety of this moment of communion with God, and in prayer.
4. When our response has subsided, we read the passage one last time, in contemplation—to rest in God and resolve that we will walk with Him in our daily life, inspired and encouraged by the word or phrase that we have heard through this exercise.
Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Additional notes, drawings, or thoughts from listening to the Creator today:
We would love to hear from you! Please share with us what you are hearing and how you are growing in your devotion to listening.
This blog post is taken from the book Called to Listen: Forty Days of Devotion. To order a copy of this book, please visit our website and invite a friend to participate in the study with you. The book includes additional guides and questions to be reviewed in a small group context weekly.