Learning how to really listen is the hardest and most constantly challenging part of being a disciple of Jesus and a pastor.
The temptation is to jump in with answers, as if that will bring God’s power to the situation.
We’re not the first response team.
God is always here before us.
What is he already doing?
…one who has no interest in cultivating a habit of listening is not yet ready for what ministry in Jesus’s name will require. Ours is a listening vocation. From a posture of attentive invocation we give language to what is there. As ambassador-discerners, we enter the stories of others and say each day to them and to ourselves, “Slow down. Look here, listen, God is revealing himself.”
Zack Eswine, Sensing Jesus, Crossway, 2013, pg 202.
mgpcpastor's blog 
Agree. I recently discovered that most people would rather have you listen and guide them in creating a solution, instead of simply giving advice. Listening is what I’m working on.
Eswine has a very helpful chapter on this in Sensing Jesus.
Thanks! I will check it out