What is the message I bring to you today? It is this. I think I am safe from the possibility of misunderstanding when I say we supremely need a little more sitting still, a little more silence, a little more time of listening to the voice of Jesus. I am speaking as much to my own heart as to the heart of anyone reading this.
There is a terrible danger that in our attempt to discuss Jesus Christ, and our attempt to serve him, we should fail to remember that no theological discussion can ever fully comprehend him. He defies the grasp of the intellect merely as such. We may discuss him in our colleges and theological halls, and all the while we discuss him, the fire of our hearts burn low. That is the peril of the age in which we live. We may be so busy running his errands and attempting to do his work as never to sit still and look into his face.
I do not want that application to evaporate as a mere generality. I pray you test it by any day in your life, and test it by asking yourself, how long have I taken today to listen to him? Someone will ask, do you really mean this? Are you practical? Are you indulging in some kind of sentimental talk? Are we really to listen to him, listen for him? Men do not hear him today as they did of old. Shall I make your statement from another standpoint? It is not true that men cannot hear him as they did of old. Instead, men do not wait to hear him as they did of old.
In this present age, they do not listen enough. Listen in the morning, listen amid the babble of other voices, listen at eventide for him. In the scriptures, those selfsame scriptures through which he spoke to men of old, listen for him. The study of the Bible will curse us if we are not careful. Men will tabulate and analyze, and think they know everything. Listen, unless as a result of your study of the Bible you hear the voice of God, the voice of the living Christ talking in your inmost soul, your Bible knowledge is a mere technique that will burn you and ruin you. Be still, and listen for his voice.
Cease praying sometimes, cease praise sometimes, cease your questioning every now and then, and listen. No man or woman, young man or young woman, youth or maiden, will cultivate the habit of waiting to listen for the direct message of Christ and be disappointed. When you do this, your Bible will be a new book. Then you will pulse with the propulsion of new power. Then the missionary fire will blaze and drive you out upon the path of service.
There must be more burning of heart. We are in danger of being overwhelmed with our principle and our machinery. My plea today is that we take time to listen, that by his interpretation of the meaning of these things we have, they may flame with light and with fire, and create in us that holy passion which sings and sobs, which serves and waits, which travails and makes his Kingdom come. May God give us all the open ear that we may hear what he says to us, for his name’s sake.
-G. Campbell Morgan
The Fight of Faith 