July 27, 2014 - "HAVE YOU TALKED TO GOD LATELY?"

Does God speak to us? When we read the Old Testament, we find countless examples of God talking directly to some of the main characters of these early books of Scripture. In Genesis, we find Him speaking to Adam and Eve. He converses repeatedly with Moses, instructing him every step of the way as Moses leads the Israelites to the Promised Land. In the New Testament, everyone present at Christ’s baptism heard the booming voice of God the Father from heaven saying “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”

But how about today? Does God STILL speak to common, ordinary people like us? The answer is “yew.” Now I know everyone is thinking: I’ve never heard Him. But you have – or at least you should have – in so many ways. You may not have heard His voice talking directly to you. But we have all heard Him throughout our lifetime. He speaks to us when our prayers are answered. He speaks to us when we choose to obey God’s Law rather than give in to temptation. A thought may occur to us and lead us to a specific action . . . that’s God’s way of speaking to us.

Yes, God still tries to speak to all of us. The problem is: we aren’t always listening! Often our thoughts and our lives are cluttered with so many things. We worry about so much . . . we try to deal with everything on our own. Consequently, we crowd out that one voice that we need to hear to help and guide us: THE VOICE OF GOD. In Psalm 46:10, we read these words: BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD. In Hebrew, it translates a bit more powerfully: SURRENDER, and know that I am God. When we are willing to turn everything over to Him and do what we are asked to do again and again in our services: commend ourselves, one another and all our life to Christ our God, then God will be able to speak to us quite clearly.