Listen to God

Listen to God

A 5-Minute Devotional for Busy People

Minute 1: The Hook

You're drowning in noise.

Podcasts on 1.5x speed. Notifications stacked like cordwood. The group chat buzzing. The inner monologue narrating your to-do list like a sports announcer. And somewhere in the cacophony, you asked God to speak — then kept talking over Him.

We treat listening like a luxury. A spa treatment for the spiritually elite. "I'd love to hear from God, but I have a meeting in ten minutes and a toddler who just discovered how to open the fridge." So we settle for quick prayers fired off like text messages, hoping God will reply with an audible memo before the deadline.

But the truth is scarier: You don't have a hearing problem. You have a stopping problem.

Minute 2: The Scripture

Read Luke 10:38–42 (ESV):

"Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.' But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.'"

Now read John 10:27 (ESV):

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."

Minute 3: The Twist

Here's the twist that will silence your excuses:

Martha wasn't sinning. She was serving. And Jesus still said she was wrong.

The Greek word for distracted is periespato — it means to be pulled away, dragged around, drawn in different directions. Martha wasn't lazy. She was busy with good things. She was literally serving Jesus. And yet she was "anxious and troubled about many things" while Mary chose "the one thing."

We think the enemy attacks our prayer life with temptation. But more often, he attacks it with busyness disguised as responsibility. You don't need to rebel against God to miss Him. You just need to keep moving fast enough that you never sit down.

And here's what changes everything: Jesus says Mary chose the good portion. The Greek word is exelexato — she selected it, picked it out, made an intentional grab. Listening wasn't her default setting. It was a deliberate decision in a house full of pressure to produce.

But the real twist is this: Listening to God isn't passive. It's the most active thing you do all day.

In Hebrew, the word for listen is shema — and it doesn't mean "let sound waves hit your eardrum." It means hear and obey. You aren't listening to God until what you hear changes what you do. Mary wasn't just absorbing information. She was positioning herself to receive direction that would alter her entire life.

You don't need an hour of silence. You need sixty seconds of shema — enough to hear the One voice that makes all the other noise make sense.

Minute 4: The Practice

Five minutes. Three moves. Right now.

Stop the scroll. Put the phone face down. Turn off the podcast. Close the laptop. You cannot listen to God and the algorithm at the same time.

Ask one question and shut up. Whisper: "God, what do You want me to know today?" Then wait. Don't fill the silence with your own commentary. Let Him have the floor.

Obey the whisper. If you hear "call her," call. If you hear "let it go," drop it. If you hear "rest," stop. Listening without obedience is just spiritual eavesdropping.

Minute 5: The Prayer

Lord, I've been Martha — anxious, troubled, and loud. I've been serving You while missing You. I've filled every silence with my own voice and called it prayer. Today, I choose the one thing. I sit at Your feet. I stop the scroll. I close my mouth. Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening. And when You speak, give me the courage to obey — not tomorrow, but now. Let my life be shaped by what I hear, not by what I hustle. In Jesus' name, Amen.

One Sentence to Carry With You Today:

You can't hear God if you're doing all the talking — or if you're too busy to sit down.

Now go. Close your mouth. Open your ears. He's already speaking.