What are you saying Lord?
For the last few weeks, I cannot hear out of my right ear. I don’t and have not had a cold, so no stuffy nose or blocked ear canal from that. I have not been swimming so no water behind the eardrum. I don’t seem to have wax in it, but I definitely can’t hear properly.
It makes me ask people to repeat often what they are saying to me.
Spiritually I asked myself – are there times when I can’t hear God? I’m either not listening to Him or maybe I’m too distracted by other things? Maybe not spending enough time with Him to hear His voice?
Or could it be there are other things in my life blocking me hearing His voice?
It states in John:
“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”
John 10:27 NRSV
To hear the Lord’s voice, we need to be His sheep and He our shepherd. We have spent time with Him to know His voice, His personality, His presence. Our Shepherd already knows us completely and loves us completely and when the relationship is working right, we follow Him, follow His voice, follow His instructions.
What is simply amazing is that all are called into the Sheepfold.
The book of Revelations tells us this.
Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.
Revelations 3:20 NRSV
And when we are following Our Shepherd, we will hear His guiding words as stated in Isaiah:
And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’
Isaiah 30:21 NRSV
But if we are not careful in keeping our hearts soft, keeping them far from bitterness and unforgiveness we might be the people who The Holy Spirit cautions us to not be.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
Hebrews 3:7-8 NRSV
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
as on the day of testing in the wilderness,
So, I have to often ask myself (and maybe this is the question you have to answer too) – Is Jesus, your Lord and Saviour, being given a priority in your life? Are you giving Him your time, your heart, your mind, all of you?
So even though physically my hearing is not fully working may I be fully focused on hearing spiritually the living God. May I glorify Him with my life!
May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’
Love
Rosemary
Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Can you think of a time when you found it difficult to hear someone? Maybe you are experiencing that more and more in life. How does it affect you?
When you think of hearing from God do you find it easy to hear his voice? If so, why do you think you find it easy to hear Him? If not, why do you think you find it challenging?
Take some time to reflect on how much time you spend with God. What could you do to give God more time and attention?