07/02/2022
Last Sunday Lauren shared with us:
"Early on in mine & David’s marriage we had a common argument.
And I’m sure we’re not the only ones who have had this discussion in their home! It would go something like this:
Lauren: talking about her day or something that needs to be done
David: scrolling through his phone or working on the computer
Lauren: gets mad at David for not paying attention to her.
David: then proceeds to tell Lauren everything that she just said.
Lauren: then gets madder & tells him that maybe he was hearing what she was saying, but he wasn’t actually listening to her.
And so, the argument continues & vice versa when I wasn’t listening.
How often do we do this when the Lord is trying to speak to us.
Are we hearing his voice?
Are we listening to his voice?
Are we following through with what he says?
Hearing is defined by the ability to perceive a sound.
We all have the ability to hear the voice of the Lord, but that’s easier said than done right?
In my example of mine & David’s argument he could have just put down his phone & given me his full attention. Simple enough solution. But it takes an extra amount of effort & awareness to do so, and to take a break from what we are doing.
That’s the same with hearing the spirit. We can’t just coast through life assuming that if God wants to talk to us then he will make it obvious. We have to be aware & conscious to make sure we are available to hear what he has to say. He won’t’ demand our attention, we have to desire & seek it.
We have innumerable things in this world that are trying to distract us & fight for our attention. Social media, news, movies & tv, podcasts, music, youtube, you name it.
According to a 2022 review, 80% of people check their phones within the first 10 minutes of the day. And with everything that’s going on in the world it can become easy to be weighed down, overwhelmed, & caught up in all the turmoil.
So how do we hear the voice of the still small spirit in a world that is so demanding for our attention & loud?
One thing that I’ve found helpful is to step away from the noise & let there be quiet in my life. I have to take breaks from social media, news or other distractions.
The world is loud & the spirit speaks quietly. We won’t be able to hear him if we don’t silence our lives just a little. And if we fill our lives with entertainment of the world & not enough hearing the voice of the Lord then it will become increasingly difficult to not get caught up in the turmoil of the world.
So the definition of hearing is the ability to perceive a sound. But the definition of listening is giving one’s attention to a sound.
Once we are able to silence the turmoil of the world so we can hear his voice, we can put our attention into listening & understanding what the lord is saying to us.
As we listen to the voice of the Lord we won’t always know or understand what he is trying to tell us immediately. It takes time & practice. Just like trying to understand our little toddler. As we know God & practice listening, we will get better at it.
Even though my form of worship has significantly changed over the years we can always find God in our day-to-day life no matter how busy we are. He will always be there willing to speak to us if we are willing to take a moment to listen & focus our attention on him.
There are many ways the Spirit speaks to us, but none is more powerful than the Spirit speaking peace to your mind. This peace is something we can all seek and obtain even in this crazy noisy world we live in.
Following the promptings is the action & shows God our willingness to obey his will and trust him.
I think that following the promptings of the spirit can be two different parts:
Acting on the prompting and Following through on the prompting to it’s conclusion.
A couple weeks ago our family was hit with a really nasty sickness that I thought would never end. We kept missing church & one Sunday when I was feeling better, I felt like I should go and at least teach my primary class. I didn’t get to prepare much & I think in the class we ended up talking about bees for a good 10 minutes for some unknown reason. We then ended the class coloring & I felt pretty defeated & wanted to go home.
Out of the blue as we were coloring one of the primary kids told me “You know, sometimes I don’t know if God is even listening to me when I pray.”
I was very surprised, and I had a great opportunity to share my testimony about how God is always listening & how much he loves us. That ended up being one of my most spiritual experiences teaching in primary & it happened within the last 5 minutes of our class.
Even though I felt like I should have stayed home that week I was grateful that I followed through on that prompting even though I had no idea why until those last 5 minutes of the class. And maybe it wasn’t a big deal for that primary kid, but it was a testimony builder for me of the sweet spirit of children & how much God loves each and every one of us.
I am grateful for the still small voice of the Lord in this earth. I grateful he gives us opportunities to hear him & listen. For me personally I feel like things are becoming louder & more distracting in the world. There’s never been a time that I need the still small guidance of the Lord in my life to help me understand and follow his path. And I know that if we set apart time for him we will hear him speaking to us & our lives will be forever blessed."
Thanks so much, Lauren, for your example and testimony of how the Lord does and can speak to us!
We invite you to learn how the Lord speaks to you. Are you listening to his voice, or hearing him? What changes can you make to hear the Lord more throughout your life?
We also extend the invitation to join us for church tomorrow at 10am:)
