Today's Devotional

July 19, 2005

Subject:  Hearing God - Oh Did He Say Something?

Deuteronomy 5:24 - "And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath showed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth."

"God doth talk with man."  That's what the verse says, but how many of us have ever heard Him?  The problem isn't that God isn't speaking to us.  The problem is that we usually have one-way conversations.  

If you had a boyfriend or girlfriend and called them up and said hello and then talked for five minutes about how you'd like your friend to do this and that and solve all of your problems and then said bye, would it be valid to say that you talked "with" your friend?  Perhaps you talked "to" your friend or even "at" your friend, but there was definitely no conversation.  A conversation requires the participation of at least two parties.  You said your piece and that was  it.  That's often how we are with God.  Prayer to many is a time to kneel down and ask God to do this thing or that thing for us.  And when we're really sincere about Him fulfilling our needs, we add, "in Jesus' name."  

Today think about how you communicate with God.  Is it a one-way or two-way conversation?  Are you giving the Almighty a chance to get a word in the conversation?  He surely has much to say to us.  After all He left us 66 "love notes."  In those notes He bears His soul to us and talks about "His" desires for us and yet we still come to Him most of the time asking only for "our" desires to be met.  What about what He's saying?  Today He'd like to say even more to us, but He just can't seem to get a word in.  Don't confuse prayer with what you've been doing if you simply made a list of things you wanted God to do for you, because He's not trying to hear your list until you hear his heart.   

Carlen