“Christian maturity is the distance between God’s call and your capacity for obedience” (from the Growing Deeper class this morning).

I’m reminded of something my pastor once said during a sermon. He stated that you can’t wait until you confirm the call of God on your life to start getting reading. You have to be ready. You have to develop a life of disciplines before God calls you.

I believe that maturity look a lot like leaning on the Lord. It’s a declaration of dependence that acknowledges the words of Jesus in John 15:5: “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.”

I can’t expect to recognize the voice of God if I never spend time with Him. If I rush through my prayers and Bible reading, how can I learn to discern when the Shepherd is speaking? If my prayer life is spiritual version of my Amazon wish list, I leave no room for God to respond.

Sometimes, I think the best prayers are ones where I’m silent in the presence of God, not bringing any petitions or requests or even thanksgiving, but simply sitting at the feet of Jesus for as long as it takes to come to a place of calm where I can hear Him speaking. Sadly, I’m often too busy or impatient to wait that long.

I’m also learning that it’s better to read less Bible and ruminate on it more. I tend to speed read for information instead of prayerfully meditating on what I read and turning it into a prayer. Also, it’s easy to leave the words on the page and not put them into action. Then nothing changes.

But thankfully God is more patient than I am. He still speaks when I’m less inclined to listen. He has more time for me than I have for Him. And I believe He’s making me more like Him even on those days when I don’t act very much like Him.

Lord, speak to me and all your servants, for we are listening.