Listening Heart

Gordon Morrow Judy

Description

Listen to My heart in the quiet of your heart . . .More. Life is full to overflowing, but we crave an illusive more. Via social networking, airwaves, and TV, our culture tells us to strive for more stuff, more activities, more adventure--you name it. Yet we are often left feeling unfulfilled and wanting. Empty, even. With so many demands for our attention, it is difficult to quiet our minds long enough to hear the still, small voice of our loving Father, and to listen to the One who desires to bring us so much more than the noise of everyday life. Judy Gordon Morrow discovered the more when her world was turned upside down and she knelt before God to seek Him and ask for His help. More than a decade ago, in tear-stained notebooks, she began to pen God's responses to her desperate prayers. Now, in The Listening Heart, Judy invites you to spend a year hearing from the God Who Speaks--the God who wants to speak to you. Each daily devotion echoes the Father's love and care for you, offering hope, comfort, encouragement, and more--a rich closeness with God that will satisfy the longings of your heart.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Prayer in Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 25 novembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441266682
• Langue: English

Extrait

PRAISE FOR

The Listening Heart comes from a deep well of hard-won wisdom, from a heart bent toward the words of Jesus. A caveat though: don’t read this devotional unless you want to truly experience the powerful affection of your Father in heaven. It’s full of promises of His winsome, wooing love.
Mary DeMuth
Author of The Wall Around Your Heart
The words Judy penned are like fresh air that will let your soul breathe deeper. Read this book and experience more peace and joy in prayer.
Holley Gerth
Bestselling author of You’re Already Amazing
This book is a treasure. As I read each daily entry I found my heart softening and my spirit calling out to know Christ more intimately. Deep calls to deep on the pages of this devotional gem. Be prepared to respond at the soul level and experience a transformation.
Robin Jones Gunn
Bestselling novelist and author of Victim of Grace
The Listening Heart is a masterpiece of writings that will leave you forever changed. Through this unique devotional book, you will discover that your most profound longing is true—God really does love you beyond your imaginings. He seeks out your company, grieves over your tears and delights in your joy. He really is whispering to your heart … even now. Are you listening?
Anita Higman
Award-winning author of over 30 books, including Where God Finds You
Feeling some distance from God? Desiring to draw closer? Judy Gordon Morrow graciously opens up her own prayer journals of conversations with God during the deep valleys, peaks and routine days of her life. These readings of God’s impressions on Judy’s heart—impressions of nearness, concern and love—will encourage you and model a conversational way of speaking with and listening to the Divine Lover of your soul.
Klaus Issler, Ph.D.
Talbot School of Theology, Biola University Author of Living into the Life of Jesus
This haunting devotional is strangely affecting, an approach that perhaps wouldn’t be advised and might even be discouraged, yet somehow works in a wholly refreshing and unexpected way. It’ll grow on you if you let it, and so you should.
Jerry B. Jenkins
New York Times bestselling novelist and biographer Owner, Christian Writers Guild
In The Listening Heart , Judy Gordon Morrow invites readers to eavesdrop—in a sacred way—on her most intimate conversations with God. What sets this book apart is the raw, spontaneous quality of the entries. I recommend this book to readers who struggle to hear God’s voice in a tangible way.
Heather Kopp
Blogger at HeatherKopp.com and author of Sober Mercies: A Memoir
Here is a beautiful book you won’t want to miss, penned by Judy Morrow while on her knees in prayer over the past twelve years. Her experience of praying and listening will encourage and inspire you to listen and to receive God’s reassurance that you are ever on His mind and heart. Buy a copy for yourself and one for a friend.
Karen O’Connor
Author of When God Answers Your Prayers
This book will help you develop an intimate prayer life with the Lord and hear His voice in a whole new way.
Sheri Rose Shepherd
Bestselling author and speaker
The Listening Heart . Oh how we need it. Oh how we want it. But cultivating a heart tuned to God’s voice isn’t easy in the busy, noisy world we live in. With tender beauty and life-changing insights, Judy Morrow takes us beyond religious ritual to the heart of relationship—helping us nurture an intimate friendship with the One who knows us best yet loves us most.
Joanna Weaver
Bestselling author of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World

2013 Judy Gordon Morrow
Published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, www.wordserveliterary.com .
Published by Bethany House Publishers 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438 www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan. www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Bethany House Publishers edition published 2014
ISBN 978-1-4412-6668-2
Previously published by Regal Books
Ebook edition originally created 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version . Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Other versions used are:
ESV— Scripture taken from the English Standard Version, Copyright © 2001. The ESV and English Standard Version are trademarks of Good News Publishers.
KJV — King James Version. Authorized King James Version.
NIV —Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
NLT —Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation , copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
NRSV— The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Contents
This Journey Together
A Letter to You
The Listening Heart

1. J ANUARY

2. F EBRUARY

3. M ARCH

4. A PRIL

5. M AY

6. J UNE

7. J ULY

8. A UGUST

9. S EPTEMBER
10. O CTOBER
11. N OVEMBER
12. D ECEMBER
This Journey Together
My Journey
The unsuspecting words of these daily readings didn’t know they would become a book, nor did I. They weren’t written at a desk or even on a laptop, but penned in scrawling cursive while down on my knees and forearms on my bedroom carpet. In early 2001 the first spiral notebook took up residence before me—my solution to a growing collection of paper scraps grabbed at random to record God’s responses to my prayers.
Those dialogues were born out of overwhelming desperation. The end of my longtime marriage, a move to another state, and a new job way outside my comfort zone catapulted me into complete dependence on God. I had never lived alone before, and I knew only a few souls in my new town. Major concerns for my sons burdened my already aching heart. This convergence of difficulties left me reeling and utterly desperate for God—and I discovered that is the best way to be. That very desperation developed in me a listening heart needing to hear from God.
Away from all family and longtime friends, I counted on one constant: God. I knew one source of peace and hope and unconditional love: God. I found out when every prop gets knocked out from under you there is always One who remains: God. He proved to me that He in His fullness is more than enough.
Although I had known Jesus since I was a young child, I didn’t know just how intimately He desired to be involved in every detail of my life. In getting to know Him daily on a deeper level, I came to love Him like never before—and I learned to trust His wild and wonderful ways in my life. The result? Absolute wonder at every juncture of my journey and especially how He has allowed this very ordinary woman to write His extraordinary words of hope.
Daily I met with Him early in the morning after a time in the Word. A notebook and pen became fixtures in front of my bowed head, ready for when God wanted to share His heart with me. And share He did—with words of hope and encouragement, especially regarding my sons and my situation.
Yet God’s words to me encompassed much more than what you’ll read here. He has given me everything from poetry to my to-do list for the day—often including things outside my thinking. He also has offered His wisdom for my financial and technological challenges. He even has poured out the words to letters that needed to be penned—from expressing God’s love to asking another’s forgiveness. I never know what He may have in mind, but I savor the joy of the unexpected. I have learned that if I neglect to meet with Him, I might miss something vital and amazing.
Twelve years and 34 notebooks later, I am in awe of God and how He has kept my feet on the path of faith and hope. I am still awaiting some long-held promises, but now I see with new clarity that God’s delays and timings have been His gifts—priceless gifts. Had He fulfilled His promises on my timetable, I’m certain my prayer journals would have been nonexistent or sporadic at best. Instead, He kept me in His waiting room, His chosen place to share His heart with me, and my life is forever changed.
Your Journey
But what about you, my friend? Where are you in your journey? Do you secretly wonder, Is this all there is? Perhaps you perceive your life as going through the “motions of mediocrity” and, awash with discontent, you long for something more…. May I share with you what I simply can’t suppress? That “something more,” whether realized or not, is to really know God through His Son, Jesus. The aching and yearning deep in your soul can only be satisfied by knowing your Creator and Lord in an intimate way.
You can’t love someone you don’t know. Once you know God and spend purposeful and joyous times in His incomparable presence, the natural outflow will be a love and devotion that can’t be duplicated in any other way. When you know Him—not just about Him—you can’t help but love Him with a love transformed from hohum to head-over-heels!
Please know that this book is not meant to displace God’s Word—never!—but to lead you to it, if you aren’t