Listening Ears

And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10 NLT)

I'm an educator and around school you will often hear teachers say, "Put your listening ears on." I think that God wants us to do the same thing. Often he is speaking to us but like Samuel we don't recognize his voice. A lot of us are just like Samuel. God called out to him multiple times and he heard something but was unsure of the source of the voice. This happens to us for many reasons. 

Many times we, like Samuel, go and ask another person what they hear because we doubt our own ability to hear from God.  Other times we hear something but just don't know who is speaking.  As a teacher, I can tell which of my students is speaking without even looking at them because I know them. I am with them day in and day out. We need to spend time with God to be able to hear and recognize his voice.

It is also interesting that this account takes place at night when all is quiet and still. In order to hear from God, we need to quiet our hearts and minds and be still before him. This means sometimes even turning off the good things will fill our lives with. Being still is a lost art in our society. We constantly have to be busy. We have headphones in, the television on and are texting and updating social media all at the same time. When God passed by Elijah it was in the stillness and this is still true today. We can be busy, even busy for God,, and totally miss hearing from him because he speaks in the stillness.

Most people I know, myself included, constantly say, "I wish God would just tell me..." What if God is telling us, but like Samuel we just don't recognize his voice.  Is he talking to you? Are you listening for his voice? Do you know him enough to recognize his voice from the voice of others or are you too busy looking to friends and self-help experts for advice? Are you still enough to hear God speaking to you? 

I believe God is always speaking to us; we just need to put our listening ears on to hear him.

                                                                           

                                                    

                                                    

Gearing Up for a New Year

Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NLT)

     It's a New Year and many people resolve to get healthier and more in shape. The stores are selling workout clothes and equipment and gyms will sell more memberships this month than any other time during the year. Maybe you are resolving to get healthier. Just be reminded as you put your sneakers and workout clothes on that as a believer in Christ, you are in a race. Be disciplined in your training like Paul talks about in Corinthians. Get your spiritual life in shape by adopting spiritual disciplines like prayer and reading God's Word. When you train for a regular race you may win a prize, but one day that prize will fade away. On the other hand, when you train spiritually you are gaining a prize that is eternal.

Paul tells us to be purposeful in every step. I know people that plan every exercise, doing certain muscle groups on certain days; tracking how much weight they can lift verses when they stared and every calorie put in their body. If we take so much care and time for a body that will one day fade away, how much care should we put into our spiritual life? Be purposeful. Fill your time with things that will nourish your soul and bring you closer to God. Paul says that he doesn't just talk the talk. Everything he preaches, he lives. He trained like an athlete with a prize in mind. This New Year resolve to do the same for yourself.

Put on Those Rain Boots

            “Look!  I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing everything on earth will die.” Genesis 6:17          

           “Finally, the day came when the LORD said to Noah, ‘Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous.”  Genesis 7:1

I know what you’re thinking, who wears rain boots anymore?  I don’t know if anyone does but they should.  There is nothing more annoying than walking around with wet feet all day. 

In Genesis, God tells Noah that He is tired of the corruption in the world, sound familiar?  Noah is the only righteous one among the whole earth.  Talk about being different.  And if being righteous in a corrupt world isn’t enough, God asks Noah to build a boat while it wasn’t even raining.  I’m sure he stood out like one of those poor girls with the black bar across her eyes on the fashion don’t page in a magazine. 

You may be asking yourself, what does it mean to be righteous?  Well Webster defines righteous as, “acting in accord with divine or moral law; free from guilt or sin.”  Jesus’ death on the cross allows us to be righteous.  His sacrifice makes us “free from guilt or sin.” After we accept that gift we must choose to act “in accord with divine or moral law.”

 
            That means that like Noah, we will be asked to go against the culture and stand out. We must follow God’s divine law to be set apart for God.  It may mean you may not be as popular as you would like but it is definitely worth it.  Noah’s righteousness paid off for him in the end.  He and his family were the only ones to survive God’s destruction.  I don’t know about you, but a few unpopular choices now in order to survive God’s destruction for eternity sounds like a no-brainer.  It’s kind of like choosing to wear rain boots when it’s raining even thought it’s not the in-thing to do.

What to Wear???

Alright ladies, there’s no denying it; we’ve all been there before – staring at our closet in frustration wondering what to wear.  It’s not just a simple question like some might think; it’s a lot deeper than that.  You have to consider so many things when picking out the right outfit.  What do you feel like wearing?  What’s on your agenda that day?  Who do you want to impress?

I hate to add more pressure to you girls but everyday you not only choose to put on physical clothes but spiritual ones as well.  These “clothes” are more important than anything else you wear.  In Colossians 3:12(NLT) Paul says, “Since God chose you to be holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”  That means that as Christians we actually choose what attitudes to “wear.”

This blog won’t help you with fashion dos and don’ts like most fashion magazines but it will help and encourage you to choose the right qualities you can strive to live out in your life.  I say the word choose when talking about these Christian qualities because just like deciding what outfit to wear you make a choice everyday if you will put your faith into action.  So pick up all those clothes off the floor and bed and get ready to learn what to wear and learn to dress His best.