Recently, my 7 year old daughter Ryleigh has been asking the question, “how can I hear God’s voice?” This is a great question and I did my best to answer. I told her that sometimes God speaks and we can hear him with our ears. There are other times that God speaks and we hear him with our hearts. She looked at me perplexed. How do we hear with our hearts? When we choose to follow Jesus and even when we have not chosen to follow Jesus he can and does speak to us and we can train to recognize his voice. The question then becomes, “how do we know we are hearing God and not ourselves?” There are ways to confirm if it is God speaking to us. For one, we become familiar with his voice the more we hear him and the more we spend time in the quiet seeking him. The best way to start is to say, “LORD, help me to recognize your voice. I am listening.” When he speaks to us he confirms it through the Bible, his word. He will also confirm his message through music and even through other people who follow him. I then made sure to tell her, but also to remind myself, that we go through seasons where we do not hear God’s voice. However, even when we do not hear him it does not mean that he does not hear us. God is present and hears us when we call…ALWAYS!
Yesterday, I received a phone call from a friend and pastor from our church. She told me that she was hoping I would speak Wednesday, 7 days from now. The church is doing a sermon series based on the book Whisper, by Mark Batterson. I knew I was supposed to say yes to her request. Listen up because here is the cool part. Ryleigh’s question was heard by God, “how can I hear God’s voice?” I found the book and was about to begin studying for my teaching and the subtitle to the book says, “How to hear the voice of God.” I was blown away. God has been hearing her heart and her questions and I believe that he is going to use me to speak his voice to her through this book. I am going to read this book and take notes so that I can teach my daughter how to hear the voice of God.
How is it that when so much is going on in this world of ours God can take time to care for us individually but also take care of all of his children? He hears our needs and desires even when we are not directly voicing them to him. I am so grateful that I do not have to carry the load and the burden of the questions that my children will have on my own but that God can hear every question. He hears every question that is said out loud and every question that remains tucked away in the recesses of their hearts and minds. I can trust that he has us in his hands and he can handle and answer our questions in his timing. God’s timing, his ways and his love are perfect. His perfect love is holding you, me and our children.
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