Lean In

I’m sitting in a restaurant… a noisy restaurant. A server stands before the table reading a list of specials and because my hunger has graduated from a desire to eat to a burning need for nourishment I am trying to listen intently. Yet, between the background music and increasing levels of chatter throughout the dinning room, I find myself struggling to hear. Certain words like “pan seared,” or “oven roasted,” are breaking through the noise, but I cannot hear everything clearly.

So what do I do? I lean in. 

The same goes in the spirit. When I am finding it difficult to hear the voice of God pierce through the noise, I cannot afford to throw my hands in the air and say, “oh well, I tried”, I must lean in until I hear Him speak. The power in prayer is that it’s multifaceted; it is a rhythm of both declaring in faith and listening in silence; shifting atmospheres in both Heaven and Earth and in the heart of man. 

I have found the skill of leaning in to be essential when my inner man is striving to be still, desperate to hear and longing for more. Have you ever noticed that once you decide to lock in with Jesus you become instantly distracted? Literally the moment I begin to pray the phone starts ringing, someone knocks on the front door, I physically feel fatigued or my thoughts are like an endless game of pin ball. Yet, we cannot be ignorant to the enemy’s devices, he is desperately beating on big bass drums and clashing cymbals to fill our lives with so much noise that there is no room for prayer… but there is power when lean in. 

At this point of the year, we are coming down from the New Year hype, where the excitement of a fresh start and declared resolutions starts to subside and little by little we find ourselves slipping back into life as usual. This is extremely easy to do by the way and if you’re feeling some post New Years guilt let me just remind you that you are not alone friend. 

You may currently find yourself in this strange in-between, dissatisfied with how things have been, but unsure of where God is taking you or how you will get there…I encourage you to lean in and listen. Our desire to press in is fueled by our hunger. It is a burning need for the more that God has promised, so ask yourself, “How hungry am I?” What am I willing to do in order to hear God’s voice? What priorities am I willing to shift in my life in order to see a shift in the spirit? 

When I think of the deepness of God and all He is, I can only imagine the things He is longing to reveal to us when we envelope ourselves in Him. As we move forward in this year, my prayer is that our prayer lives would be like rivers with fresh flowing water and that we would be a people committed to leaning in. 

“There are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind.” - C.S. Lewis

Luke 11:9-10 (NIV)- “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” 

Ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking.