Thus says the LORD: This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people.

Jeremiah 7:23

How, exactly, are we to listen to the voice of God? One way is through contemplation. In the fourteenth-century classic The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an anonymous English mystic, the author writes, “This is what you are to do: lift your heart up to the Lord with a gentle stirring of love, desiring him for his own sake and not for his gifts. Center all your attention and desire on him. . . . Do all in your power to forget everything else.” Contemplation is a lot like listening to our best friend—which is what God wants to be for us.