Good Thursday morning! Down here in Florida this past fall we had a little storm pass through. We didn’t try, but we could hear the 70 mph winds blowing through the neighborhood and trees. This morning, let us do try and listen to what God might be saying, for Jesus says, “My sheep hear My voice and follow Me.”
Have you ever just stopped to simply listen? Just stopping to see what you could hear? Maybe it was out in the country in quiet woods. Maybe it was in a busy mall. Or a family gathering with lots of conversations happening at the same time and you are listening in on all the different chatter.
What do you hear?
Or maybe it’s home alone at night and you are trying not to hear something. Like the creaking stairway or floors, knowing no one is home but you. Or a noise coming from your closet – I just watched Monster’s Inc. Or like me, hearing what I thought was a person outside of our house.
It’s interesting to me that the animal kingdom has a great ability to distinguish sounds (voices) from the babies to their mothers. They can pick them out of a crowd even though the babies all look and sound alike as do the mommas…at least to us.
My Sheep Hear My Voice
And sheep? They know their shepherd’s voice and will follow no other. Take a look at this:
That is amazing to me. I love this video. What a parallel to/for us, in knowing our Shepherd’s voice. Again Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice and follow me.”
Sometimes we have selective listening. Carmen was being honest with me the other day, and she said I have two faults. I don’t listen…and something else. 😊 So we hear, but we don’t listen. We get distracted or maybe even tune something…or someone out. Ouch! Maybe a taste of how God feels.
Do you follow every voice you hear?
Then you have mainstream narrative, telling you things they want you to believe…even if it’s not true. How do you know what to believe and who to trust? And oh baby, it’s not just one sided!
Ever just want God to make it clear to you what He is saying and so you think, “God, just hit me over the head with a brick! Make it clear.” Right? Even Gideon wanted a sign, and even that wasn’t enough. He wanted two signs regarding the fleece (Judges 6). Back to hearing God’s voice:
I Kings 19:11-12 niv 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.
I did a search on verses about listening. There were hundreds, so too many to list. But scripture makes it clear, we should be listening. Listening to God and listening to others.
Search on speaking and/or talking? Again, a lot of verses. But it’s clear, scripture tells us that those who restrain their lips or holds their tongue are considered wise, even the fool.
Proverbs 17:28 ESV Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
Challenge of the Day: Listen for His voice. So be it!
