What I'm Hearing

I spent most of Saturday alone. I didn't even plan to, which is probably best. If I had planned on it, I would have had grand plans, then frittered them away on playing Scramble on the iphone or some such nonsense.

Troy was helping friends move 'the big stuff' and I wasn't really into 'the big stuff' so I went over to the being-moved-out-of house to clean some. I got there just as all the guys had one load of big stuff loaded and were leaving. So I cleaned alone for a few hours. And thought. And listened for God.

I went and grabbed some lunch (and loaded a book into my Kindle app on my phone and man-oh-man, could Amazon's one-touch purchasing of Kindle books get me in HUGE trouble!). I did a little shopping and wound up at the gym to do my workout. Still alone. Still thinking. Still listening.

And guess what? God spoke! I'm sure He's been speaking all along, and I am just re-learning to hear Him. I had such precious time listening and being directed, led, and loved.

Then Sunday.

Sunday should be a GREAT time to hear God, right? And I did. What a PRECIOUS Sunday it was. Service was beautiful and I was immensely blessed. However, the rest of my Sunday looked like many other days with meetings and gatherings and driving kids hither and yon. And this I discovered: it is way harder to hear God's voice in the middle of the madness. Or maybe I heard His voice, but just didn't want to obey.

While I'm still re-learning to hear God's voice, the busy-ness is too hard. It all comes flying at me and relationships, commitments, and obligations bring up my own past hurts, bitterness, and selfishness.

So, thankfully, Lamentations 3:22 tells me that God's mercies are new every morning. So I sit in the quiet and re-learn His voice, and learn again to listen in the middle of the madness.

I want to KNOW Him and know the sound of His voice so that the gentle whisper is most prominent inside my head.

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. 1 Kings 19:11-13

The Lord is in the gentle whisper, which can be oh-so-hard to hear. May you hear it today.

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Some resources that have been beneficial recently have been the book that goes with this study: What Happens When Women Say Yes to God, by Lysa TerKeurst.

Also, Leigh Gray of Speaking Thru Me ministries had a post along these lines.

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When I mentioned Tucker's encouragement for us to find ways to spend May giving, I said I would commit a post a week to that -- and I plan to. However, today would be a great day for you to visit Trey's blog to find a reason to give.