By Rick Warren ”The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out” (Proverbs 20:5 NIV). If you want your prayers to be effective, you need to learn to be a good listener. Why? Because prayer is a conversation. While you may not hear God’s voice when you pray, he has still given you the Holy Spirit and Scripture to know how he wants you to live and to encourage you. But most of us are too busy, and we talk too much to really hear and understand what God—and others—may be trying to tell us.You may think you’re already a good listener. But there’s a big difference between hearing and listening! Hearing is simply the vibrations that take place in your ear. Listening is how you decode those vibrations in your brain. Many times I’ve heard my wife, my kids, or someone at church say something—but I didn’t listen. Listening is a skill. And if you’re going to be effective in your prayer life—and in all your relationships—you must develop it. Here are four tips to become a better listener. 1. Withhold judgment and criticism from the start. Don’t evaluate until you’ve heard and comprehended it all. I’ll admit that this isn’t natural. When someone else is talking and you hear something you … [Read more...]