I have such a funny story to share with you. It happened Friday night as I was getting my 11 year-old to bed. It amazes me how God will use situations, whether they be funny or serious to speak to our hearts.
We had been gone for a good portion of the evening and arrived home about 9:30pm. We proceeded down to the family room to unwind and catch up on some television and news. Danielle, our eleven year old loves to play the “Quiet Game.” I really don’t know why because she always loses. Any one who knows her, knows that she is always talking. But I think she likes to play it, because some day she hopes to get her dad or I to be the one to talk first. Well, long story short, she lost and I decided to go upstairs and help her get ready for bed. I still had not talked and it was driving her crazy. She said, “Mom, you can talk now. You are the winner!” Well, I decided I wasn’t quite ready to talk, so I used sign language to communicate with her( what little I knew!) The whole time she was getting her p.j.’s on, brushing her teeth and even saying her bedtime prayers, I remained silent. It got to the point that she was begging me to talk. “Mommy, please, I just want to hear your voice. I need to hear it! Please, talk to me,” she said. Just as I was getting ready to kiss her goodnight, I leaned in real close, and whispered, “I love you so much!” She squealed and said, “Oh mom, I love to hear your voice. That is just what I needed!”
What a delight! That captured this mommy’s heart! What about us Christians? Are we that desperate to hear God’s voice – do we have that type of longing, just to hear Him speak to us? Oh, I hope so! Nothing can satisfy our longing for God except hearing His voice and spending time with Him!
Isaiah 26:9 says, “My soul yearns for You, O Lord, in the night, yes, my spirit within me seeks You earnestly!
John 10:27 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
The world makes it so easy to drown out the voice of God and push Him into the background of our lives. We tend to get so busy that we forget to just sit back and “listen.” Wouldn’t it be great if God decided to use billboards, “sky writing”, or a scoreboard at a ball game to speak to us? Now, that would be just too easy! Well, believe it or not, God does speaks to us every day, more subtlely, of course; but we need to know that He does speak to us and wants to lead, guide, and encourage us in our everyday lives.
I love Jeremiah 33:3 - “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
God is a very real and personal God who loves us and desires us to know Him and to walk in His ways. God spoke to Moses in the burning bush – Exodus 3; Habakkuk knew the sound of God speaking to him -Habakkuk 2:2, and Elijah described it as a still, small voice -I Kings 19:12.
We recognize God and the better we get to know Him, the more clearly we will recognize His voice. Hearing the voice of God is as natural as hearing your best friend talk to you. He speaks to us in the ordinary moments of our life.
Do you want to hear God’s voice? Are you longing to hear Him speak to you? Then you must be ready to listen. God may choose to speak to you today through His Word, through another believer, in the midst of a situation or circumstance, an impression or even His audible voice.
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”
Isaiah 30:27
Pray and Listen – they go hand in hand! Prayer is exciting when we allow God to do most of the talking! – Ecclesiastes 5:2
Loving you today -
Debbie Carr
