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The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for other followers of Jesus  is learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives us His Word but also lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him. Christians, especially ministers, so often think they must always contribute something when they are in the company of others, that this is the one service they have to render. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking. Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too. This is the beginning of the death of...

Just finished reading a book that has been on the shelf for sometime - Listening Life  by Adam S McHugh. The book has some real gems coupled with wobbly theology in few places. So sadly no blanket recommendation. But here are some very helpful truths I took away from it.  1.  We desire to learn how to listen better because we want to learn how to become more human. At the heart of listening is that it enables us to  love and welcome people into our lives. We all want to be story-hearers and not just storytellers because it is who God made us. 2.  Listening is obedience! The word we translate into English as “obedience” literally means a “listening from below.” Obedience is a deep listening, a listening of the whole person, a hearing with your ears and with your heart and with your arms and legs. 

Far from impious, it is imperative to tell God how we feel so long as we confess our base emotions without approving them. We need to clear our inner decks of toxic emotional waste. Otherwise this debris will poison our spirits. No one should ever complain that there is no one to whom we can talk. No man is an island where God is. Who understands our infirmities better than he does? Who has more power to alter our circumstances and restore order than God Almighty? - Jim Andrews ( Source  : Polishing God's Monuments)

Many of us have the wrong idea about prayer and solitude. We think these parts of life are what you do while you're waiting to do something really important. In that sense, we view prayer as equivalent to a football team doing pregame warm-up drills. Everyone knows that the drills only get the team ready for the big game. There is a real sense, however, in which prayer isn't the pre-game at all. Prayer is where the battles of life are won and lost. - Bob Briner  ( Source : Leadership Lessons of Jesus)

Listening is one of the most basic ways we submit to each other. In fact, listening is minute-by-minute submission to others. I clear away what's going on in my mind and I follow what others are saying. I "die" to my own desires and "live" to theirs. - Jan Johnson ( Source : Invitation to the Jesus Life )

God also cheers when we come to him with our wobbling, unsteady prayers. Jesus does not say, “Come to me, all you who have learned how to concentrate in prayer, whose minds no longer wander, and I will give you rest.” No, Jesus opens his arms to his needy children and says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest”... The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy. - Paul E Miller (Source :  A Praying Life )