『Farmer of Hearts - How Not to Miss God’s Voice』のカバーアート

Farmer of Hearts - How Not to Miss God’s Voice

Farmer of Hearts - How Not to Miss God’s Voice

著者： 生命恩泉 Fountain of Love and Life
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Do you long to discern God’s will more clearly amid the busyness of daily life? This Lent, Fountain of Love and Life invites you to rediscover the art of listening in quiet and stillness. How to Listen? In this Lenten Retreat, we will explore practical ways to listen to God’s voice in our daily lives so that we do not miss His personal messages meant for our growth and welfare. Drawing wisdom and inspiration from the Scriptures—God’s very words to us—we will reflect on how He continues to speak into our hearts. Mentality and Lifestyle Adjustments Throughout the retreat, we will also examine the inner dispositions that help us receive His Word more openly, and learn how to strengthen our “spiritual muscles” so we become more attuned to His Voice. Not to Miss God’s Voice Through these Lenten spiritual exercises and our shared journey, our ultimate goal is to deepen our ability to discern God’s will by staying attentive to His unique messages for each of us, as we navigate our lives and seek to understand the mission He entrusts to us. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Is 55:10-11) We sincerely invite you, during the 40 days of Lent, to spend 10 minutes each day experiencing God’s presence in a new way. Join NOW* – To receive daily reflections (Monday to Saturday) from the brand new FLL Lenten online retreat “Farmer of Hearts: How Not to Miss God’s Voice” starting from Ash Wednesday (February 18). Written content will be available in traditional and simplified Chinese and English. Audio guides will be available in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Let’s begin our Lenten Spiritual Journey together, starting on Ash Wednesday, February 18! *If you had received our Advent 2025 online retreat content through email, you do not have to register again. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@watchFLL IG: @fll.cc | Facebook: fb.com/fll.cc© 2026《生命恩泉》 Fountain of Love and Life, All Rights Reserved. キリスト教 スピリチュアリティ 聖職・福音主義
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  • [How Not to Miss God’s Voice] Day 40 – Today’s Prophets Begin by Listening to God’s Word

    [How Not to Miss God’s Voice] Day 40 – Today’s Prophets Begin by Listening to God’s Word
    2026/04/03
    But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!” But not everyone has heeded the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what was heard from us?” Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:14–17)Today, we must recognize a profound truth: we no longer belong to ourselves. We belong to Jesus Christ, who redeemed us at a heavy price. Since we were created for a divine purpose, we cannot live merely for ourselves. We must take responsibility by no longer viewing our time, talents, and money as “our own,” but as resources entrusted to us by God—temporarily lent to accomplish His higher and greater purposes.We are called to imitate St. John the Baptist. The prophet Isaiah foretold him as “a voice crying out in the wilderness” (cf. Isaiah 40:3–5), preparing the way of the Lord. Jesus Himself described John the Baptist as “a burning and shining lamp” (John 5:35), bearing witness to the truth. To become such a lamp today, we must continually listen to God’s voice, so that we may become instruments through which God speaks to others and to the world. If we truly desire to serve God, receiving direction from Him is not optional—it is absolutely essential. Consider Jesus in the Gospel of John: He repeatedly emphasizes that He does not speak on His own. He says, “The word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me” (John 14:24), and again, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (John 14:10). If even Jesus depended entirely on the Father’s voice, how much more must we? We must be courageous in speaking for the Lord and not suppress our witness, for the prophetic role is increasingly important in our time. God needs you to be His voice! Therefore, we must “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16).To live this out, in addition to God’s Word, we desperately need the Holy Spirit. Jesus instructed His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit, who will teach us all things, enlighten us to understand God’s Word, and give us the strength to carry out Jesus’ teachings. The Holy Spirit helps us discern God’s will, examine our hearts, maintain spiritual sensitivity, and remain childlike before the Lord—living in complete dependence on God rather than acting independently.However, words without action are dead. We must learn from Mother Mary, who both treasured God’s Word in her heart and acted upon it with the obedience of faith. In this way, we ensure that God’s Word does not return to Him empty! Here is the “obedience key”: God often gives the next instruction only after we have carried out the previous one. As the Psalm says, “Our steps are made firm by the Lord, when he delights in our way;” (Psalm 37:23).As we read and meditate on God’s Word daily, it becomes our spiritual treasury. We store up the most precious riches, ready for times of trial, and we are equipped to share God’s love. Ultimately, as we fall more deeply in love with God, we reach a point where—even when we cannot clearly hear His voice—we can instinctively understand His heart and His expectations for us. We become like Jesus, praying with confidence: “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I knew that you always hear me” (John 11:41–42).Looking back over these forty days, the key to achieving the goal of this retreat can be summed up in the motto of St. John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). The essence of this journey is the continual diminishing of the ego—letting go of the illusion that we are in control—and learning to rely completely on God.In this regard, no one lived this more radically than St. Francis of Assisi. When God called him to “repair His Church,” Francis embraced the Gospel in the most literal way. To declare his total dependence on God, he stripped off his own clothes in the public square, handing them back to his earthly father along with his inheritance. In that profound act of surrender, he declared that from then on he had only one Father in heaven. By embracing absolute poverty and letting go of all worldly attachments, Francis emptied himself completely so that Christ might increase within him. In the end, he became “another Christ” (alter Christus), a living icon of Jesus.As we conclude this retreat, let us fix our gaze on God’s dream: that His Kingdom will be firmly established in our hearts and solidly built in the world. We cannot accomplish this mission alone; we must carry it out in unity within the Church. Undeniably, the road ...
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    16 分
  • [How Not to Miss God’s Voice] Day 39 – Radical Abandonment

    [How Not to Miss God’s Voice] Day 39 – Radical Abandonment
    2026/04/02
    “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)The darkest moments in our lives are often when we can no longer hear God’s voice or feel His presence. When we feel that God has seemingly left us and no longer cares for us, that feeling is deeply unsettling. When our faith is put to severe test, God may at times appear extremely distant—so much so that He seems entirely absent.When Jesus was hanging on the cross, He fully shared in this heart-wrenching human suffering. Out of compassion for our suffering, He took upon Himself the full weight of all the evil and sin in the world. At that moment, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, experiencing what felt like total abandonment. When God remains silent, the burdens we carry can feel unbearably heavy. Deep within, we may cry out: Does God care? Is He deliberately remaining silent? If He is God, why does He not break His silence and intervene?But let us ask a deeper question: who is it that causes God’s silence? Among all created beings, it is we who are most capable—and most often responsible—for silencing God! Our indifference, our hardness of heart, our choices to pursue worldly attachments and turn away from Him, and our desire to detach ourselves completely and live independently of Him—all these build a wall that prevents us from hearing His voice.Yet God is by no means a cold and indifferent observer. His Sacred Heart is continually pierced by our rejection. And what wounds the Father’s Heart most deeply is the immense suffering He endured in handing over His only Son for our salvation. If the Father loves us enough to endure the unimaginable pain of giving up Jesus, how can we think that He does not care about the struggles in our lives? When God sees us suffer—especially when our souls are wounded—His Heart is deeply pierced. Do we truly care about God’s feelings, and do we reflect on why He sometimes remains silent?For our sake, both the Father and the Son went through an extremely painful process of “letting go.” The Father gave up His only Son, allowing Him to take on the brokenness of our humanity. As for Jesus, in order to fulfill His mission of redemption, He not only gave His life, but step by step relinquished all the “rights” of His humanity and divinity.When He accepted the humiliation of the cross, He let go of His status and His divinity, not grasping at His equality with God. He consciously surrendered His own will and human preference, praying: “Not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). He let go of every possibility of saving Himself.He also gave up His dignity, willingly accepting mockery, being spat upon, and being stripped naked—completely abandoning His right to be respected. When He was falsely accused, He remained silent, letting go of the right to defend Himself or demand earthly justice. Moreover, in His darkest hours, He gave up the comfort of His closest friends—who fell asleep, betrayed Him, or fled.In the end, He faced the ultimate abandonment; as He cried out on the cross, He expressed the deepest human sense of desolation and forsakenness. He willingly bore the crushing weight of our punishment for sin, revealing to us the highest form of love.Jesus’ journey to the cross is the ultimate archetype of “abandonment.” If God could abandon Himself so completely for our sake, why can we not do the same for Him?We must embrace this spirit of "abandonment" which means complete surrendering to God. This is not a one-time decision, but a continual, daily process of diminishing the self to make room for God. What, then, do we need to let go of?First, we must let go of our insistence on “understanding everything,” no longer demanding answers for every suffering. We must also let go of our reliance on feelings, recognizing that even when we do not feel God’s presence, He is still truly there. We need to relinquish our attachment to reputation, no longer seeking others’ respect and approval; and let go of our personal preferences, no longer insisting that everything be done “my way,” learning to release resentment when things do not go as expected.We must also surrender our own timelines, no longer clinging to when things “should” happen. We need to let go of spiritual pride, abandoning the illusion that we can achieve “perfection” by our own efforts, and instead rely completely on God’s grace. Finally, we need to surrender all past regrets to God’s mercy, and let go of the illusion of control—tearing up the blueprint we have drawn for our lives, and allowing God to write a far more beautiful story for us.When God’s silence becomes unbearable, let us look to the Cross. Jesus shows us that in the face of feeling abandoned, the ultimate response is not despair, but to surrender our entire lives—completely entrusting ourselves into the hands of the Father. By letting go of our need to take control of our lives, our rigid timelines, and our spiritual ...
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    15 分
  • [How Not to Miss God’s Voice] Day 38 – The Most Radical Love

    [How Not to Miss God’s Voice] Day 38 – The Most Radical Love
    2026/04/01
    “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34)What does it really mean to love others “just as Jesus has loved us”?Jesus did not simply issue this command from on high; He personally demonstrated it for us. He humbled Himself, took off His outer garment, wrapped a towel around His waist, and washed the dust from His disciples’ feet. If even God Himself is willing to kneel down and serve us in such an incredibly humble way, then we truly have no excuse not to do the same to serve one another. Yet what is striking is that the washing of feet was only the beginning. This act reveals to us what “Servant Leadership” truly is. As beautiful as this image is, it is only the relatively easier part.Jesus then showed us the ultimate expression of His love: He stretched out His arms on the cross and gave His life for us! This perfect example fulfills His own mission statement: “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)This is the extent of love that Jesus asks of us. It is indeed incredibly hard, because it means we must be willing to sacrifice ourselves for others. But to truly live out this new commandment, we must not only embrace the call to self-sacrifice—we must also not “choose” whom we are willing to sacrifice for.St. Paul reminds us in Romans 5:6–8 that Christ died for us while we were still weak and still sinners—this is how God proves His love for us. Furthermore, Jesus explicitly instructs us not to limit our service only to those we care about or those who “deserve” it. In Luke 14:12–14, He tells us that when we host a banquet, we should not invite our friends or wealthy neighbours who can repay us; rather, we should invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind—those who cannot repay us.These are precisely the people Jesus is especially concerned about: the Last, the Least, and the Lost. Jesus teaches, “The last will be first” (Matthew 20:16); and that “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40); and He came “to seek out and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Therefore, if we want to find Jesus, draw close to Him, and listen to His voice, we know clearly where He is: Jesus is present among the poor and the broken.Yet we must honestly admit that Jesus’ standard is extremely high. Where can we find the strength to live this out? What motivation can move us to shift our focus toward others—to reach out in love—rather than being preoccupied with our own interests?A “kind heart” or human willpower alone is not enough to sustain a life of service. If we rely only on ourselves, we will eventually run dry. The source of our service must be deeply rooted in Jesus’ perfect love. In fact, Jesus tells us that when we serve others, we are serving Him. We must use His Sacred Heart to serve Jesus through serving the least.Therefore, the foundation of our self-giving must be firmly rooted in God’s love. Unless we remain in constant communion with Him and continually draw from His infinite love, we will quickly exhaust the “fuel” of our lives. If we do not carry the love of Jesus within us, we may serve for a while out of enthusiasm, but we cannot persevere. For we cannot give what we do not have. Without God, we are all weak and broken. We are fully capable of betraying Jesus like Judas, or denying Him three times like Peter when He needs us most.Thus, we must continually return to the source:“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6) Once you have truly tasted God’s love, everything you do will be utterly transformed.A reflection by a Jesuit priest Fr. Joseph P. Whelan, S.J. beautifully captures this dynamic of love: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than Falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”Now, let us truly sense how deeply we are loved, and listen again with new eyes to what Jesus says to us:“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34)ReflectionIn my daily life or community, who are the “last, the least, and the lost”? How is Jesus inviting me to serve them?Do I unconsciously choose whom to love and serve based on “who can repay me” or “who is easier to love”?What currently drives how I live each day and spend my weekends? What brings me joy and excitement? Is it God—or something else?Today’s ...
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    14 分
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