Sometimes God will repeat a question to you, whether you ask him to or not.
Quite often, when he does so, it is an invitation to reflect on your initial response. “Are you sure about that?” Maybe it’s worth reconsidering. “Is that your final answer?” Maybe there is a deeper, truer answer.
In prayer, one of the most difficult habits to untrain one’s self from is the compulsion to ask questions. To ask for anything, whether a blessing, some help, or an answer. Most of our early training in prayer, (mostly by example), is to make requests. But you must untrain yourself to ask in order to leave space for God to do some asking.
And then, of course, comes the further untraining in hurriedness. If you’re like me, you’re always oh so anxious to move on. Next question, please. The art of lingering is essential to prayer.
The less you are asking, the more you are free to listen and respond. And then you can be free—in that holy silence that is absent of your own voice—to finally hear God’s question. And then, even to hear it again.
