LISTEN CLOSELY

 

Good morning my dear readers!

I am so thankful to God for you because if it wasn't for you I wouldn't be writing this blog. I do know that some days you may not be touched as touched as others. But I hope and pray that what I am writing has been an inspiration to you for whatever reason. I know that when you go to church on Sunday and hear the sermon, sometimes it doesn't touch you as much as other times. You have heard people say that the sermon was meant exactly for them. As a matter of fact I heard it from someone just a few weeks ago. So, you never know when God will speak directly to you through a sermon or song or another means. But God does talk to us.

He talks to us through His Word. He talks to us through a pastor. He talks to us through a song. He talks to us through the beauty of His creation. He talks to us through a person. He talks to us through our circumstances. He speaks to us in our hearts and our spirit by the Holy Spirit in a still, small voice. And if He wanted to, He could talk to us audibly. He did to Moses and He could to us. There are probably other ways God talks to us that I have not mentioned but the point is He does talk to us.

 

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for 

teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in 

righteousness, so that the servant of God may

 be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

 

 And we also thank God continually because, 

when you received the word of God, which you 

heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, 

but as it actually is, the word of God, which 

is indeed at work in you who believe.

1 Thessalonians 2:13

 

One of the things we must do when God speaks to us is: Shut up and listen! That is sometimes the hardest thing to do. We don't want to listen or we think that it is our own thoughts. Or maybe we listen but then don't want to do it and so we don't do what God wants and so we disobey.

 

Karen Wolff says: Let me give you an example. A couple years ago I signed up to become a hospital visitor for my church. When I first saw the notice in our church bulletin, I immediately felt that I should respond. But, I let it pass. Over the next couple of weeks, the thought occurred to me off and on so I said to myself, "If I see the notice in the bulletin this coming Sunday, I'll sign up."

Of course, it was in there. But this time when I saw it, there was no getting away from it. I finally had to say, "Okay, okay God, I'm going!"

So there I was doing hospital visits for the first time. I was nervous, but I prayed a lot before I went, and I was doing okay. But on my way to the second hospital, I prayed again that God would use me to represent Him to all the sick people, giving comfort, etc.

Right in front of the hospital was a crosswalk with a traffic light. As I stood at the corner I kept praying, starting to cross, even though the light was red. I mean, I was in a hurry trying to get to all those sick people!

Right in the middle of the street I heard, "So you want to represent Me, and you can't even make it across the street without breaking the law?"

I was so shocked by this, I said the most spiritual thing I could think of, "Oops."

God uses lots of things to talk to us. But actually hearing from God isn't so much a matter of if he's talking, but rather, whether we're listening. 

So, remember these things that we have said and listen to God, hear His voice. He is talking to you.

Have a blessed day!

Les