I reflected HERE about the challenge of hearing the Lord calling out to us. We’re not always listening, but he is always calling.

The question that needs to stay before us is this: How do we discern the voice of the Lord in our own lives?

If there is anything I’ve learned over the years in my teaching and spiritual formation it is this: there aren’t easy steps. This is not something that is accomplished with a punch list of things to do and in a week you have it.

This is a long obedience in the same direction, as Eugene Peterson would put it.

We have our standard answers on how to hear the voice of God:

1. Read your Bible
2. Pray
3. Fellowship

And… ummmm… well, the list gets a bit hazy after that. But look at it… the list. Make your own list. Look at it.

What is it?

It’s a list.

There isn’t a detail there that can help.

“Read your Bible.” Sure. How? What does that mean?

If there is a “key” to hearing the voice of God, it is this: time.

It is learning what “reading my Bible” means over time. It is learning from those who have gone before. They’ve spent years in the Word. Their Bibles are marked up and worn out. It is reading through a passage and the next year coming to it and realizing it’s like a fresh trip through that passage all over again.

Same with prayer. I can follow the frame work of the Lord’s Prayer, for example, and yet, over time, if I am staying with it, that frame work becomes more meaningful and I am not racing through the words.

The young boy Samuel discerned the voice of the Lord with the help of Eli. We have others in our lives who have walked that way. Trust some elders who have walked that path for quite some time.

When I ask the question about discerning the voice of the Lord, I look back over time to see how the Lord has spoken to me. I think of situations where I knew it was the Lord. I also think of situations where I thought it was the Lord. I can reflect back to ask what the differences were in those events.

Out of all this, as I reflect, there is something I know to be true in my life: that walk with God gets sweeter. Discerning his voice is still “not easy” but it’s not “as hard.”

I also know this walk needs continual cultivation. I don’t want to be Eli to Samuel. Eli should have been hearing the voice of the Lord all along but he only knew from his past experience what might be happening to Samuel. Eli was the priest. He should have been hearing and teaching Samuel day by day. He was too dull, so the Lord went to Samuel to start fresh.

Discerning the voice of the Lord is a cultivated walk. A long walk. A worthwhile walk.