Monday, February 1, 2010

Listen and you will hear

I grew up in church even though I did not become a true follower of Christ until I was 32 years old. I had always heard people in church talk about how God had told them such and such. They would go on and on about God speaking to them. Once I became a Christian and began reading the Bible I read all the various stories of God give instructions to the men and women. Once I realized that God does speak to His children then I desired to hear from Him but I did not know how. It seemed all my time with Him was one-sided, me speaking to Him. I would pray praises, thanksgiving and even my request but I did not ever hear Him speak. There would be time that I would determine in my heart to hear God speak so I would take the time to sit still and be quiet waiting on a word, just one word. However, it would just be silence and I would get discouraged and walk away. Then one day my bible study brought me to the small Old Testament book of Habakkuk.

Habakkuk was a man that was desperate to hear from God. He not only wanted to hear from God but he expected that God would speak to him. At first it did not appear that Habakkuk would ever hear God speak but he never gave up. Habakkuk did get discouraged but he never gave up on waiting for God’s word to come to him. Little did Habakkuk know that while he was waiting and wanting to hear from God, God was already working. HAB 1:5 - Look among the Nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days- You would not believe if you were told.

Even we do not hear from God directly He is still working in our lives. Like I said I wanted to hear from God but I was not sure how. Once I quit trying myself to hear from God but instead I just spent time with Him in prayer and in studying His word is when I did finally hear Him speak nuggets of wisdom to my heart. Now I look for Him to speak to me daily in various ways. Sometimes it was just nudges in my mind of things I should do; sometimes it is in things I remember, in dreams, in nature and even in the words of others around me.

Do you expect Christ to speak to you? Do you know that no matter how long you have to wait to hear that He is already at work?

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