Are you struggling to hear the voice of God?

Today's post comes from Anita at Scattering the Stones

 

‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place

and get some rest.’

Mark 6:31 NIV

Are you aware of God’s voice throughout the day, or is the noise surrounding you drowning out His voice?

Silence can mean many things to different people; some love it, while others fear it, some fight against it. I am sure that it is no co-incidence that the level of noise has increased, as the separation between God’s ways and the world’s ways, are becoming further apart. Noise clouds judgement, overwhelming the still small voice, causing further confusion.

Is it easier to fill your life with noise, than to be still in silence?

If I asked what you heard right now, what are you hearing?

I am not just talking about the voices from those who need us, calling for our attention, or the noise from traffic, radio, TV, phone …. But also the words we repeat over in our minds, our worries, the words we carry around in our heart, the endless list of things we need to accomplish …

I used to be frightened of silence. Very rarely would I be without some sort of noise in the background. It wouldn’t necessarily be anything I was particularly listening to, but would be an essential tool to prevent me from thinking too much.

In my late teens I went on a long retreat of several weeks; to help me get through a difficult time. It was the first time I had really been on my own, without family and friends. I was broken; in need of God’s healing. Most of the time I felt afraid, in grief and in desperate need of a hug. I would walk around lost. But the retreat centre ministry team knew what I needed. I needed to work it all out with God by my side and Him alone.

‘Serve only the LORD your God and fear him alone.

Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him.’

Deuteronomy 13:4 NLT

Apart from services, there was very little noise. You could drop a pin at one end of the building, and I expect you would probably hear it at the other.

Though it was extremely hard, I will always cherish that time of great pain, as when I went home, never again would I need to always have background noise. I actually spend most of my time craving silence. Through my time there I learned to truly listen; to me and to God. I began a beautiful journey of discovery, deepening my hunger to hear God’s voice through the noise of this world.

Are you taking the time to listen?

Often when we come before God with our prayers, we ask to hear from our LORD through words of encouragement, help or direction; either through being led to specific scripture or by other means. But when we ask, are we taking the time to listen to His response, His voice?

‘Be still and know that I am God’

Psalm 46:10 NIV

God calls us into His presence, to present our needs before Him, but we also need to remember that it is about relationship.

The Bible is full of people with their requests to God to listen to their prayers, such as -

‘LORD hear my prayer!

Listen to my plea!

Don’t turn away from me in my time of distress.

Bend down and listen, and answer me quickly when I call to you.’

Psalm 102:1-2 NLT

God is waiting for us to listen to His voice.

When we ask Him to be near, He is already there. Like Mary, we need to sit at His feet. (Lk 10:39). We need to go to Him, sit at His precious feet, and bathe in His Holy presence and just listen.

As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, not only do we need to read His word daily, but we also need to take time out to listen, as this pleases our God (Deut 13:18).

Let us crave being still in His Holy presence, to cry ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty’ (Isa 6:3) from the depths of our hearts.

‘Come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, for he is our God.

We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care.

If only you would listen to his voice today!

Psalm 95:6-7 NLT

Let us pray:

Lord I worship You and bow down before Your throne of grace.
Please remove the barriers in my life, to only hear Your voice.
Help me to be still in Your holy presence, to hunger and thirst for Your truth and light.
I want to listen to Your voice; I am sorry for the many times I have not listened, when I have placed my focus upon other things.
May my relationship with You deepen; may there be no need for words, just being.
May my life be refreshed in Your green pastures.
In Your name
Amen

Application:

Today, I invite you to plan some time to spend purely listening to our Lord. Take your Bible, go where there are little distractions, sit, wait, and be.
I love visiting woodland, a garden, or the coast. Ask God to speak and just listen to what He wants to share with you; nothing about needs, just be, in complete worship of the King of kings.

I hope and pray that you will be abundantly blessed.

Blessings in Him

Anita x

Image by A Hunt  © Scattering The Stones

I run a Christian Ministry called 'Scattering The Stones', sharing God's love through encouragement, prayer and praise. You would be most welcome to join me. If you would like prayer, please feel free to contact me.

Welcome!

This week's post comes from Starla Espinoza at Keepin It Real

Hey Sista. Welcome and thank you so much for stopping by.  If you are seeking an amazing group of women who love God with all their hearts and souls then you have found us. We have a strong passion to bring glory to God through writing. God has strategically placed us in each others path via Girlfriends in God on FB. We have never met each other in person but after many discussions and viewing each other's blogs, our spirits connected and we realized how powerful it would be to combine forces and form "Blogger's in God" aka BIG sisters.

I love the way God order's the steps of His children. We are His willing vessels to be used for His glory and honor. I am so honored to be used by God in any way that He chooses to increase His kingdom. I believe that the formation of this group is the beginning of something BIG.  Look forward to a weekly post from someone in the group.  I am the first to kick things off so please check out my post below and have a blessed week.

Let The Words of My Mouth

I am a Christian, do you know what that means? That means I'm far from perfect, simply redeemed. These are the words to the beginning of a song by Isaac Carree called "Simply Redeemed". The journey of a Christian is far from perfect. There are so many times that I have had to repent and ask God for forgiveness for either thinking the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing.

Right before Christmas I struggled with a rude voice mail from one of my colleagues. Well, this person works for the same company as I do but she is located in the Southern part of our state and I am in the North. I work in Accounts Payable at my company and we process payments for the entire company. Since the end of the year was approaching, the deadline was fast approaching for projects that need to be accounted for on time. Tension is thicker than ever and people wanted to get things out of the way so they could take extra time off for the holidays.

I was attempting to explain to someone that there wasn't enough funds on their purchase order to pay their invoice. She only understood enough to be dangerous. Sooo, she called me but I was already gone for the day so she decided to leave the rudest voice mail that I have ever received. She was talking to me like I didn't understand what was going on. Her vocabulary included several four letters words that start with an F, S and a D. I think you get my drift. When I returned to work the following day and listened to my messages, the first message was actually an apology from this person. She said that she was sorry and she knows I am just a human being and no one deserves to be talked to that way but she doesn't agree with the way we do things in our department. She didn't sound sincere at all but more like she was trying to cover her behind.

I hadn't heard her initial message yet so I skipped through a few messages and came to her original message. I often listen to my voice mail on speaker phone and some of my co-workers overheard what was being said to me. Everyone was so upset so I discussed it with my boss and he asked me to forward the voice mail to him so he could listen to it. My co-workers were very offended not only by the way this person was talking to me, but she also put our entire department down. She simply did not understand why things are handled a certain way. I have forgiven her even though her apology was not sincere at all. I prayed for her a few times but I have not spoken to her since this incident.

To "keep it real" and be honest, I have been that person speaking to someone in a condescending manner and after being on the receiving end of some one's wrath, I get it. I understand how others have felt when it was me talking to someone when I was obviously annoyed and frustrated with them. I have hurt people's feelings before (w/o cussing) and have apologized to them for being rude. The moral of the story is, our words can really slice through a person like a sword. Even if we are not literally cussing them out, our tone can set the stage for an ugly battle. This has taught me to be more careful about the way I deal with anyone when I am frustrated. I say to myself, "Starla girl you have the right to remain silent and anything you say can and will be used against you."

Lord, you know how often I ask you for forgiveness due to my mouth. I know that if I don't forgive others, then I should not expect you to forgive me. Teach me to be slow to speak, slow to anger, slow to judge, quick to listen and quick to forgive. Create in me a clean heart, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. In Jesus name, Amen.

Starla Espinoza