Are you listening?

1 Kings 19:11-12


11 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. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.


So, the obvious point God is trying to make is……..he speaks in whispers, not tornados (or hurricanes), not earthquakes, not fire……all he needs is a whisper. He is a gentle God who caresses our hearts, not rips it to shreds. Now don’t get me wrong, he can teach you SO many things through a broken heart or a hard time, but I believe in that situation, God using the bad for our good. He says all Good and perfect gifts come from him not horrible, devastating gifts. While our all-powerful God ALLOWS for bad things to happen (as part of his perfect plan that we could never begin to fathom, so don’t try) he does not CAUSE bad things to happen. I believe this with all of my heart. How could he??? He loves us more than our feeble human hearts could ever reach, he weeps when we weep and laughs when we laugh!! He longs for us to be happy. All that to say, God speaks in whispers.

I read this verse yesterday and pondered some but, didn’t hit on anything too thought-provoking. Then on my way to work this morning, I heard a song I had never heard before. In the words it said “Let me live a life where a whisper is enough”. Then my whisper came………eureka! Think about it, what is a whisper? to me it is loving and sweet. It’s a gentle way to tell someone something. This fits God’s character perfectly. Of course this is how he speaks to us, with sweetness on his tongue. But further still, I realized that in order for me to hear a whisper I have to be so close to the person speaking, the closer you are, the more likely you are to understand. Duh! The closer I move toward Jesus, the more I read his word, and pray without ceasing, the more of an effort I make to grow closer to my savior………the more I will hear and understand his whispers. Not only this but also, to hear a whisper is deliberate. You have to try, you have to focus. It’s no wonder we don’t hear God’s voice with all the distractions in our world, all the distractions in our heads! We’ve missed it people! We’ve missed the voice of our loving Savior so many times. We were too distracted to hear the voice of the King of all kings. We couldn’t sit still long enough or take the time to be deliberate in listening for our Creator’s wisdom. Have you ever tried to talk to someone who constantly interrupts?? It is the most annoying thing ever. My mom used to tell me “when someone interrupts you, it means they don’t care about what you are saying…….so stop talking!” haha! How many times do I interrupt what God is trying to tell me?? And every time I am implying to him that I don’t care what he is saying……I’m so sorry God. Thank you Lord,that my Savior is not like me. I am so grateful that he wasn’t ADD on the cross. I am so blessed that his focus was on me and not his pain, or his pride, or his pity. Oh what a God we serve!