There are many gods in this world. I am currently in Nepal and Hinduism and Buddhism are the 2 main religions. There are temples all over the city of Katmandu. People come everyday to these temples to bring flowers, money and other forms of offering to their gods. They pray to these gods and ask for their help. What they get in return is a blank stare back at them. These idols are mute and man made. They don’t ever speak back to their followers. They are not living and they cannot help anybody.
Something fascinating about the God of the Christians is the fact that our God speaks to His followers. He not only speaks to them, but He adopts them into His family. God is a loving Father that passionately pursues His children. It says in John 10:2-4, “The man who enters by the gate is the Shepherd of His sheep. The watchman opens the gate for Him, and the sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all his own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow him because they know His voice. (NIV)
Jesus is our good shepherd that knows our voices. He longs to speak to His children all the time.
About 3 years ago, I was sitting in my Bible College dorm room and reading World Race blogs. I came across one that caught my eye. I’m not sure what it was called, who wrote it or even all that it said. But something stuck out to me and it changed my life. A girl wrote something poetic like “Get so quiet that all you can hear is your heart beat“. Cheesy, right? I guess not, because it impacted me a lot. What she wrote got me thinking, “How often do I just sit in silence, quiet myself and wait for God to speak to me”? I mean, I knew God spoke to me. I heard Him speak before. But I couldn’t think of a time where I just sat down, shut up, and listened.
I decided to try it out that evening. I got in my bed. Sat down. Grabbed my iPod to write down what I heard. And waited. What I found next was that it was difficult to sit in silence. I kept thinking about how the day went or what I was going to do the next day. I had a hard time focusing. I prayed and asked God to silence those thoughts. After that, when it got really quiet, I heard in a still small voice say, “Jordan, the quieter you get, the louder I become“.
God spoke that amazing truth to me that night and it revolutionized my relationship with Jesus. I began to practice silence and solitude on a regular basis and I grew closer and closer with Him each day. I am able to quiet my thoughts really fast now and talking with God has become a very normal thing. I mean, I claimed to have a relationship with Jesus, but all I was really doing was leaving voicemails. It was as if I would call God and say “Hey God, I need you for X,Y, and Z” and then hang up. Really, I was treating Him as a genie. And let me tell you, God is so much better than a genie! A genie (if they existed) answers your wishes and doesn’t have a relationship with you (Aladdin doesn’t count).
God has always been, is and forever will be a very personal God. He speaks to those who has ears to listen. God is like a radio. He is always on, but we don’t always hear Him because we are not tuned into the right station. When we silence ourselves, are willing to listen and desire to have relationship with Jesus, He speaks to us. He loves to speak to His children. Can you imagine a good earthly father who enjoys spending time with his kids and how much he loves talking with them? How much much more our loving Heavenly Father who sent His only Son to die so that we can have a right relationship with Him?
God speaks to us in many different ways including the Bible, other people, nature, books, music, a still small voice, trials and many other ways. He is always wanting to communicate to His children. My question is “Are we listening?”.
My encouragement to you is to get away from the business of life and quiet yourself. “Get so quiet that all you can hear is your heart beat” and “The quieter you get, the louder He becomes“.
