Sometimes God calls us to action, and the effort to listen to God attentively in prayer will gradually make us aware of this. We experience it as a discomfort, and we are unable to rest until we have begun to do whatever needs doing.
At other times, the call is to patience and perseverance. If circumstances, or other people, or our own impatience, are pressing us to change, to move on, to abandon something unrewarding and start something new and exciting, it may only be in prayer that we get a sense of reassurance, and feel encouraged to stick with where we are and what we're doing. That same message can be found in Isaiah: For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused and said, "No! We will flee upon horses"-- therefore you shall flee! and, "We will ride upon swift steeds"-- therefore your pursuers shall be swift! (Isaiah 30:15-16)
But it is only in my prayer, over time, that I discover what God is asking of me.
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