Learning to listen

SAT-7 receives hundreds of responses to our TV broadcasts every day. A high percentage of these many calls, messages and emails are from viewers seeking advice for the difficult situations they are facing.

But we also hear many powerful testimonies and encouraging stories of God at work in people’s lives. Shirin, a viewer in Turkey, called in to share the story of how she learnt to hear God’s voice…

Shirin’s story

From the age of three, I tried to get God closer to me through prayer, but my prayers were like a ritual. I did not hear Him once. His silence and my inability to hear Him had made me hurt, depressed and troubled. The closer I tried getting to Him, the more I thought He didn’t hear me or didn’t want to talk to me.

On your programmes, I heard people saying that they are able to hear the voice of God, so I wondered, why couldn’t I? This made me eager to follow your programmes.

Now, I understand better how to pray because of your programmes: that I am to invite God into my life and not try to force Him to act; and to be genuine by confessing my sins.

As soon as I prayed in this way I heard His voice talking to me for the first time, saying, “Remain in my love” (John 15:9). Although I had never read His Word, He started to speak it to me. From then on, my broken heart was healed.

It was God who took the step towards me, and not I — His work, not mine. All I had to do to get to know Him was to genuinely invite Him in. Since then He is with me and we commune daily.”

Shirin, Turkey

Reflect:

Have you heard God’s voice in your own life recently? Why not set some time aside this week, like Shirin, to confess your sins, invite Him to speak, and ‘remain in His love’?

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