How to Listen
Everybody longs for a new world. Everybody disagrees about how to get it. There is more knowledge in the world than before, yet we are closer to catastrophe. Human wisdom has failed - but God has a plan.
We say
* God has a plan, you have a part.
* When Man Listens, God Speaks.
* When Man obeys, God acts.
* When Men Change, nations change.
God can show you what to do - not in a vague, general way, but in a practical way that makes life different and gives you a new direction.
Some people believe in God. It can work for them. Others do not believe in God. It can work for them, too, because for all us it is an experiment.
Many people pray, but they do all the talking. A great prophet once said, "Speak, Lord, for thy Servant heareth." Most people, when they pray, say in effect "Listen Lord, for thy servant speaketh." God gave man two ears and one mouth, so why don't we listen twice as much as we talk?
1. Take time in the morning
If you are running a business, you take time to plan it. If you want to build a New World, you have to take time to find the right plan.
The orchestra tunes up before the symphony. We can tune up our lives before the day begins. Once breakfast comes ? or the children ? most people don't stop until they drop wearily into bed. The early morning is the only time we can count on. So wake up. Sit up or get up. But be fully awake. Open your heart and mind to God and write down the thoughts that come to you.
2. Take Pencil and Paper
Father Gratry a century ago said this: "The world does not change because you do not change." But the world can change if you change. How can you change? By listening to God. For God is always speaking, just as the sun is always shining. In the morning before the distractions and problems of the day you can listen to God.
How can you listen to God? Here is the answer: You write it down so that you can listen better and you can remember his words. It is practical. You decide to fight for a new world on the basis of absolute moral standards. You are quiet. You write down the thoughts that come.
3. Is every thought you get from God?
Certainly not. Most of us have been in touch with the wrong information for a long time. It influences us. So we need to test our thoughts:
* Are they in line with absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness and love?
* Are they in line with our real duties to our family, to our country?
* There is the test of other minds. More light comes in through two windows than one. So when in doubt look for direction with others who wholeheartedly want to build a new world.
4. Talk over what you have written down.
Many husbands and wives have this time of quiet together. They tell each other what they have written down. It is the secret of unity. There are three sides to every question:
* Your side,
* My side
* The right side - not who is right, but what is right.
5. What if two people get different ideas?
Be honest about your motives. Have further quiet. Thoughts may come, showing where disunity has come in, lack of honesty, or lack of trust. Put these right. When teamwork is rebuilt, the united plan is not hard to find.
6. Carry out the thoughts that have come
You will only be sure of guidance as you carry it out. You cannot prove that a rudder will guide a ship until the ship is moving. But anyone who is determined to change and build a new world can find in the silence the way to go forward. For it is in the silence that the new world is born.
7. What if no guidance comes?
Generally there is a reason. Here are some simple blocks to guidance.
* Any wrong relationship in my life.
* Any wrong that I have not faced and put right.
* Any compromise or indulgence I will not give up.
* Anything I know I should done and have not done.
Put these things right and then try again.
8. What are the results?
Across the world an organism is growing of people who have committed themselves to build a new world, and who . take time each morning in quite to find the way. Men and women are being remade. Homes are being united. The class war is being superseded. A new team?work is coming to industry, new unity to nations and between nations.
A new world can be ours if enough of us will do this together.
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