Be Quiet

(In response to "Found Listening"...)

This morning as I was practicing "listening," I remembered back to the first time I heard God's voice and remember the anxiety in me as I desperately called out and asked God to let me hear from Him. We were at a Christian retreat with another church and they had us walking through this maze (not a cornfield maze...it's hard to explain). Over and over I kept repeating in my heart, "Lord, let me hear from you. I want to hear your voice." Over and over, I kept repeating it. Finally, I heard God say, "Be quiet." He said that I had to stop talking in order to hear Him. I think it's amazing that God will use the words that you need in order for you to understand what He wants to communicate, so that He can reach you and meet you, right where you're at.

At the time that I heard from God, I didn't know, or at least didn't understand, the scripture, "Be still and know that I am God," (Psalm 46:10). It would have communicated a different message to me at the time, simply because I didn't understand its meaning. So, in His infinite wisdom, God spoke something I would understand. Because of that, I was able to feel confident that I had heard from God and was pretty certain that I would hear from God in the future.

Yesterday, in my listening time, I heard God whisper something I did know. And, I know that the next time I hear from God, He will tell me something that I can understand, even if its true meaning is something to be searched out. "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the honor of kings to search out a matter," (Proverbs 25:2). As a daughter of the King, it is my honor to seek a thing that God tells me to seek, and to uncover a matter which God tells me to explore. But all of it begins with my sitting and waiting and listening to hear what He has to say. That is why, when He comes to speak to me, I pray that I will be found listening.