Are You There God?

March 11, 2008

by Sharon Boling

Recently I took my 5th grade daughter to a college basketball game with all of the other 5th grade girls at her school.  We were waiting to get seated and I went with another lady to get some snacks.  When I returned, I didn’t know where my daughter was sitting.  I looked out into the sea of 5th grade girls on the bleachers wondering how I was ever going to find her.  Then I heard a voice, “Mommy!  Over here!”  Sure enough, I saw my daughter motioning me to come and sit with her.  Even in the midst of all the noise from the game, the band, and other children; I heard my child calling me.  Not so strange, right?  I mean, after all, I have been listening to her cry, talk, (complain), laugh, and argue for the last ten years.  I know her voice.  Most parents can say that about their children.

 

God, our heavenly father, also knows our voice.  He created us; he knows us better than we know ourselves.  It says in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…”  The Bible also says that he hears us.  Throughout the Psalms we can see where David cried out to God and God answered him.  Psalms 18:6 says, “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.  From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.”  So God hears us when we pray to him.

 

But do we hear God?  Do we know his voice?  How do we know what he is saying?  There have been times when I pray that I really need an answer from God.  I need to know why I am going through a certain situation, or I need to know what choice I should make about something.  I can pray and pray, but sometimes it feels like he is not answering.

 Well, it is much easier to hear God’s voice if we have been listening to him for some time.  How do we hear God’s voice?  It isn’t as if he speaks out loud (usually).  No, God speaks to us though his Word.  So if we spend time in God’s Word, we get to know his “voice”.  We begin to understand his way of thinking.  His Word holds the answers we need.  It says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that, “All scripture is God-breathed….”  So God is actually speaking to us when we read the Bible.  The more time we spend reading the Word of God, the more he will speak to us.  Just like I know my daughter’s voice, I can get to know the voice of God if I take time to read his Word and seek him.  Deuteronomy 4:29 says, “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.”  Seeking God takes time.  It is a daily thing.  But the reward of hearing and knowing the God who knows me and has the answers makes it something I look forward to doing.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Spiritual 

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