to God it is because there is a secret thing he does not intend
to give up.” 4
Sin—an offense we commit against God and others—in most
cases is obvious and very difficult to hide. (Of course, whether
you admit or agree that you have committed an offense is
another issue.) As in any relationship, selfish, impure motives
or deceptive, hurtful actions will separate you from those you
love. A consequence of sin is that it keeps you from hearing
God’s voice or receiving His insights and answers. Psalm
66:16–20 (emphasis added) puts it plainly:
Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has
done for me. I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on
my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not
have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in
prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or
withheld his love from me!A clean conscience and a pure heart will open the pathway
for clear communication between two people who love each
other.
A third hindrance to hearing God talk is poor time
management. You will miss hearing God speak to you if and
when you make everything or everyone else a greater priority
in your life. You can call it busyness, or laziness, or sleepiness,
but if you don’t make time to be alone with God, your life will
reflect His absence. (I’ll discuss this more thoroughly in later
chapters, but suffice it to say, hearing God talk requires time:
planned, set aside, quiet time.)
Contemplative author and Catholic priest Henri Nouwen, in
his classic book on solitude called The Way of the Heart,
suggests that no person should be exempt from spending time