Published by Thomas Nelson on October 5, 2021
Genres: Non-Fiction, Devotional
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When your days feel overwhelming and your life has you anxious and stressed, you can find peace and hope in Jesus. In this NEW 365-day devotional prayer book from the author of Jesus Calling, you’ll find confidence to come to God in all circumstances with short, heartfelt prayers based on Scripture.
God desires a relationship with you through continual conversation—prayer. Jesus Listens empowers you to pray daily, whether it serves as your only prayer for the day or simply a jump starter to your own prayers.
Jesus Listens is ideal for those who . . .
are going through difficult times and looking for rest and hopeare busy from life’s demands, but want to grow their prayer lifeare not sure how to pray have been praying for years but want a closer relationship with GodThe biblical basis for each prayer in Jesus Listens is given at the end of each entry so you can continually return to God's promises in Scripture.
Jesus Listens includes:
365 days of Bible-based prayers Scripture references for each devotion a ribbon marker Whether you gift Jesus Listens or pick it up yourself to establish a more consistent prayer practice, Sarah’s words and her constant return to the Word of God will greatly enrich your prayer life. By praying Scripture through this daily devotional prayer book, you'll experience how intentional prayer connects you to God, changes your heart, and can even move mountains.
Look for additional life-changing, life-giving books from Sarah Young including:
Jesus Calling
Jesus Always Jesus Today
It’s been 18 years since Sarah Young published Jesus Calling, the bestselling devotional that broke barriers with its simplicity, authenticity, and comforting message. It was a message that was both general enough to apply to everyone and specific enough to be meaningful to everyone. Now, Young has taken that voice and given it new life in a brand-new daily devotional of written prayers in Jesus Listens.
I really like this idea of developing a devotional that focused on prayer—on one’s relationship with God—over inspirational thoughts or insightful knowledge about God. It seems like a lot of devotionals (even one’s I’ve enjoyed) focus on the latter and the format of a daily devotional just often can’t go deep enough to do that sort of content justice. But Jesus Listens is all about prayer. It’s one page a day, beginning by invoking God’s name and then three simple paragraphs of prayer. You could easily pray this aloud as a liturgy in less than five minutes a day.
Prayer can be a struggle. Jesus Listens gets you started. It’s not a substitute for your own words to God, but through Sarah Young’s prayers you’ll find yourself praying for and about things you never would have thought on your own. More than a devotional, Jesus Listens is a primer on developing a life of prayer. Following the example set by Sarah Young, you’ll be led into both the mystery and simplicity of talking with Jesus.
One of the things I appreciated about Jesus Listens is that it’s evergreen. You can use this devotional year after year and begin it at any point you want without having missed anything. With the exception of Advent and Christmas, the prayers are fairly neutral in referencing different holidays or events which may fall on different days in different years. It sets itself as separate from the rest of life and feels no need to connect itself to the events of any specific day, making it refuge to escape the day if that’s what’s needed.
Each prayer ends with a series of Scripture verses that are either paraphrased or quoted in the prayer. These portions are notated in the book through the use of italics. This isn’t altogether clear at first, but became noticeable after a while. I appreciate that Scripture was incorporated into the prayer in a way of showing how we can speak God’s word back to him by way of conversation. One warning, however, (and I don’t have any specific post in mind) is that one should always be wary of taking single verses out of their historical/cultural context and dropping them into a modern context. Overall, I think Jesus Listens manages to keep from misusing Scripture in that way, with the references being analogies or symbolic.
Jesus Listens is a beautiful way to begin (or end!) your day. Join Sarah Young in praying through these heartfelt, simple, and authentic prayers of peace, hope, and joy and see how it changes you.