Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
1 Samuel 3:10
What do you sense God saying to you today? Perhaps God’s voice has come to you through a passage of Scripture, a conversation with a friend, a stunning sunrise, a book, or a sermon, but certainly God has been speaking to you. It is the nature of God to speak: the second Person of the Trinity is named “Word” (John 1:1). The whole Bible is filled with God speaking. Not just that God spoke, but God is speaking now. The question is, “Are we listening?” Note the many times that Jesus, the Word, cautions: “Let anyone with ears listen” (Matthew. 11:15; 13:9; Mark 4:9, 23; Revelation. 2:7, 11; 3:6, 13).
The psalmist David tells of a miserable time in his life when he was not listening. In Psalm 32 David recounts the misery of those day he did not listen: “my body wasted away…my strength was dried up” (Psalm 32:3-4). But from that tragic chapter of David’s life, he learns to listen to God as He speaks, saying;
“I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
(Psalm 32:8-9)
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
Whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle,
Else it will not stay near you.”
So, God asks us today, “Let anyone with ears listen to my counsel; do not be as stubborn as a mule needing bit in mouth and bridle just to keep it in line!”
“The Atlantic” magazine called Frank Bachman “a man of genuine” and “apostle to the twentieth century” as he urged Christians to seek one-on-one intimate fellowship with God and with one another. Although a controversial figure to some, Bachman spoke important words to a large gathering of Christian leaders in Birmingham England in 1936:
“When man listens, God speaks. When man obeys, God acts. The secret is God-control. We are not out to tell God. We are out to let God tell us. And He will tell us.”
(Frank Bachman, Remaking the World)
God will tell us, if we are listening! In these increasingly noisy and dangerous days, God is calling every follower of Jesus to listen. And listen we must, for Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). So, Lord we ask today that you give us the spirit of the boy Samuel who prayed: “Speak, for you servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10).
A fellow traveler,
Tim
