Listening Before Leading

Psalm 46:10 NIV
“He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’”

In a world that rewards quick decisions, bold voices, and constant movement, stillness can feel like the opposite of leadership.

Yet Scripture tells a different story.

Before faithful action often comes faithful listening.

Psalm 46:10 offers a command that is both simple and profound: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Stillness is not inactivity. It is the deliberate posture of pausing long enough to recognize who God is—and who we are not.

During this Lenten season, we are invited to practice obedience over comfort. And often, obedience begins in quiet places long before it appears in visible leadership.

When we think about listening for God, we often imagine hearing an audible voice. But more often, listening to God is something deeper. It is an inward attentiveness. A quiet prompting. A gentle nudge that settles into the heart and refuses to be ignored.

Listening requires the right posture.

It means setting aside our need to rush ahead with our own plans long enough to ask, “Lord, what are You saying?”

Throughout Scripture, many of God’s leaders began not with action—but with listening.

Moses encountered God in the wilderness at the burning bush. Before Moses ever stood before Pharaoh, he first stood still in holy ground, listening as God revealed His plan (Exodus 3). Leadership did not begin in Egypt. It began in quiet reverence before God.

David, though known as a warrior and king, was first a shepherd who learned to listen for God’s voice in the stillness of open fields. The psalms reveal a heart that continually sought God’s guidance before taking action.

And Elijah reminds us perhaps most clearly that God is not always found in dramatic moments. When Elijah fled to the mountain, God was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. Instead, God spoke through a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12). Only after Elijah listened did he receive the direction for what came next.

Again and again, Scripture shows us the same pattern:

Stillness.
Listening.
Then faithful action.

Leadership that honors God does not begin with striving—it begins with surrender.

It begins with hearts quiet enough to hear.

This Lenten season invites us to slow down long enough to rediscover that truth. Before we rush to fix, lead, organize, or act, God first calls us into His presence.

Because the most faithful leadership is not born from our own strength.

It grows from a heart that has first been still enough to listen.

Leona