For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: Isaiah 30:15
I have been thinking a lot lately about silence. I have discovered that I am addicted to noise and having my brain engaged and focused on something at all times. God has been trying to speak to me about listening. We can’t hear if we aren’t silent. It really isn’t a conversation when we do all the talking or we are focused on something else. I think we spend much of our relationship with Christ just talking to Him and never listening to Him. We tell him what we want Him to do; we tell Him what He needs to do; sometimes we ask him what He wants us to do, and then we get up and turn on the television or look at our phone. Maybe He wants us to just sit in silence and listen.
How do you listen to God? Are you like Samuel, who didn’t know who was calling out to him? Are you like Jonah, who ran away when he heard God’s plan? Are you like Peter–in denial? Are you like Sarah, who laughed at God's plan and came up with her own alternative plan? Or are you like Abraham when he offered Isaac–immediately obedient? I know for me, I always second guess the voice of God. Was it His voice or was it the crazy loon in my head? Surely God doesn't want me to do that. How do we know if it is really God and not some harebrained scheme of our own creation?
In the past two weeks, I keep reading and hearing things about the hungry people of the world. Everywhere I turn, it seems that I am being bombarded with doing something about the hungry. I am feeling so convicted and guilty about the amount of food I have and I just can no longer ignore that there are literally hundreds of millions of people going hungry everyday. One way we can know it is God's voice is its repetitiveness. In the Bible, when God is trying to make a point, he repeats things. When you seem to hear, see, and run into something at every turn and it also agrees with the word of God, then maybe you should pay attention.
Another way we can judge if it's God's voice is that it will always agree with His Word. God will never ask you to do something contrary to His Word. He is the same yesterday, today and forever it says in Hebrews 13:8. A good sign is if it is something that Jesus was passionate about. Jesus was passionate about feeding people. There are two different miracles in the Bible that speak of feeding multitudes with a small amount. In the Lord's prayer He says "Give us this day our daily bread". He knows that we must have food to live, and he cares about the needs of his people. Why am I so blessed, and others are not? I believe it is so that I can bless those who have not.
Jesus was passionate about loving people especially the needy people. This world has taught us to take care of ourselves and not bother others, but that is not what God had in mind. He wanted us to all take care of each other. Sometimes a person will pop into my head and I will stop and pray for them, and then I may even call them, send them a card, or contact them in some form. Stop right now and ask God to speak to you, to lead and guide you into what He wants you to do. Afterwards, make a point to listen and then trust that you heard from God. Let's be obedient to the words He speaks to our hearts.
In the past two weeks, I keep reading and hearing things about the hungry people of the world. Everywhere I turn, it seems that I am being bombarded with doing something about the hungry. I am feeling so convicted and guilty about the amount of food I have and I just can no longer ignore that there are literally hundreds of millions of people going hungry everyday. One way we can know it is God's voice is its repetitiveness. In the Bible, when God is trying to make a point, he repeats things. When you seem to hear, see, and run into something at every turn and it also agrees with the word of God, then maybe you should pay attention.
Another way we can judge if it's God's voice is that it will always agree with His Word. God will never ask you to do something contrary to His Word. He is the same yesterday, today and forever it says in Hebrews 13:8. A good sign is if it is something that Jesus was passionate about. Jesus was passionate about feeding people. There are two different miracles in the Bible that speak of feeding multitudes with a small amount. In the Lord's prayer He says "Give us this day our daily bread". He knows that we must have food to live, and he cares about the needs of his people. Why am I so blessed, and others are not? I believe it is so that I can bless those who have not.
Jesus was passionate about loving people especially the needy people. This world has taught us to take care of ourselves and not bother others, but that is not what God had in mind. He wanted us to all take care of each other. Sometimes a person will pop into my head and I will stop and pray for them, and then I may even call them, send them a card, or contact them in some form. Stop right now and ask God to speak to you, to lead and guide you into what He wants you to do. Afterwards, make a point to listen and then trust that you heard from God. Let's be obedient to the words He speaks to our hearts.
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