A growing number of Christians are embracing the ... - Biola University

When I was a little kid of 3 or so, one of
my very favorite Bible stories was
that of God, Samuel and Eli found in
I Samuel 2 –3. You know the story: Little Samuel,
the child given to Hannah by God in response to
her prayer, is given back to God by his parents
and grows up in the presence of God, ministering
in the temple with Eli the priest. Samuel was
a responsive child, responding first mistakenly
to the elderly Eli when God calls him, and then
finally to God’s voice as Eli instructs him,
“Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” (I
Samuel 3:10).
I would practice being Samuel as a child,
lying in bed after our nighttime family devotions
and whispering, “Speak Lord, for your
servant is listening.” And then I would listen for
God. I would listen with the intent to obey as
God’s servant.
One of our students here at the Institute for
Spiritual Formation at Talbot works as a children’s
pastor at a large Southern California
church and has been working on incorporating
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D E V O T I O N A L
Listening with a Response-Ready Heart
Scripture use and spiritual formation into the
church’s program for the 2- and 3-year-olds.
Thus, during their opening exercises each week,
the kids hear a short portion from the Bible read
aloud and then they all spread out across the
room, each finding their own “quiet place.” They
sit on the floor or kneel for 90 seconds and
respond to God about his Word that they just
heard. Then they go to class.
Very cool, huh? But wait, there’s more. This
young pastor came to class one recent morning
grinning from ear to ear because of a call he
received from one of the mothers at his church.
Here is what the woman said to him: “You
don’t know me; I’m one of those crazy, car-pooling,
SUV-driving California moms and I am in my
car right now with my 3-year-old son, Jack. I have
the radio going and I am listening to a local
Christian station and they just ran a commercial
that had a Bible verse in it. We were stopped at a
light, and as I glanced in the rearview mirror
before starting up, I see my son Jack in his car
seat, sitting very still with his eyes closed, head
Stella / fStop / Getty
tipped back and hands raised up. I said, ‘Jack!
Jack! What’s wrong? Are you OK?’ And Jack says
to me: ‘Mom! We just heard God’s Word, and I’m
responding!’”
Doesn’t that just warm your heart? This little
3-year-old boy hears God’s Word almost accidentally
in the course of his day, and he already
understands the connection between hearing the
Word, pondering the Word and allowing the Bible
to lead him to relationship with God. He knows
that God is near and that God is listening to him.
And this is, of course, why we read the Bible
and why we pray, because God is present and we
want to respond to him. It has always seemed to
me that one of the gutsiest scriptural responses to
God’s initiating presence comes at the end of
Psalm 139 in verses 23 and 24. After David has
enumerated all the ways in which God knows him
— through space, through light and dark, through
time past and time present, through conflict —
the psalmist rests in his response by opening his
heart to God in this manner:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart,
Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
We read the Scriptures in order to learn more
about this merciful, attentive God who is always
inviting us into a living relationship of repentance
and renewal through the work of our Lord Jesus on
the cross and of the Holy Spirit given to His children.
We read His Word and then we open our
hearts, even the parts of our hearts that are hidden
to us, to our loving Heavenly Father for examination,
and God responds with forgiveness and
healing and leading. And the loving response goes
back and forth between us and this God who has
made His home in our hearts as we say: “Speak
Lord, for your servant is listening.”
Betsy Barber (M.A. ’93, Psy.D. ’96)
Associate director of Talbot School
of Theology’s Institute for Spiritual
Formation; director of Talbot’s
Center for Spiritual Renewal;
associate professor of spirituality
and psychology
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