Listen For God’s Voice
“Choose my instruction rather than silver, and knowledge over pure gold. For wisdom is far more valuable than rubies. Nothing you desire can be compared with it.” -- Proverbs 8:10-11
What did you ask God for today? What did you tell Him you wanted Him to do? Surely it was something. It’s what all of us do each day. We ask God to do something for us.
I know. Many of the requests are for others. We want God to protect those we love. We want His healing touch. We want God to provide for us. We want God to solve our problems. We want those around us to be happy and successful. We want that for ourselves too.
But what about what God wants? There’s a radio comedy dialogue that has a man answering the phone and it’s God calling. He proceeds to tell God what he “needs”. His roommate is in the background, yelling out more requests. When the guy hangs up, the roommate asks what God wanted. The man who answered the phone didn’t know. He’d been too busy making requests to hear what God had to say.
It sounds funny but really it isn’t. And we all do it. A friend of mine stopped by recently. She and her husband are in the middle of a major job and location change. They just don’t know where they’re going yet. She laughed a bit about it. The checklist is almost complete. They’re packing and moving, traveling, relinquishing volunteer roles. It’s all scheduled to be done by Oct. 1st. Then she and her husband can spend some quite time alone with God and really pray and wait to hear what He says.
Quiet the busyness. That’s what it takes to hear God. Stop talking. Stop answering the phone. Turn off the television and computer. Just quiet ourselves and listen for Him to speak. He will. He is not in the wind and rain, in the thunder and hail. God is in the quiet stillness that settles over us.
His peace fills us. We only have to seek His will. His perfect will. Like my friend who doesn’t know where she’s headed, we can turn to God for the answers. And we can rest in confidence that He knows and that His plan for us is perfect.
We were not created for God to spoil us rotten. Oh, He frequently does. But that’s not why we’re here. God created us to serve and honor Him. How can we do that if we never listen to what He has to say? So quiet your mind. Open your heart. And listen for God’s voice. You’ll be amazed and blessed by what He has to say.
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