"Speak for your servant is listening"

Samuel – 1 Samuel 3:10

A number of years ago I became mesmerized by something Jesus said in John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, I know them and they follow me." The simplicity of the statement captured my attention and I began to note the passages in Scripture that talk about God's voice and specifically us hearing His voice. Consider Abraham hearing God tell him to pack up everything and leave his home without knowing where he was going (Genesis 12; Hebrews 11:8); Moses being told to take off his sandals and go lead a stubborn people for 40 years (Exodus 3); David asking for specific battle plans and God telling him to hide behind the trees and watch (1 Chronicles 14); Jeremiah being told to preach to a people that would never, ever listen; Ezekiel being told to preach to dry, lifeless bones; the disciples being told to leave family, livelihoods, friends and follow an unknown, penniless, itinerant preacher named Jesus. In each case they obey when humanly it makes no sense at all.

After hearing God call out to him three times the young man Samuel is instructed by his mentor Eli to simply respond to God's voice by saying "Speak for your servant is listening." As I consider my life and my walk with the Master I've realized that the issue is not that He's not speaking to me since I know He's said all that needs to be said in His Word, the Bible. The issue is on my end…am I listening?!?! Am I really listening??? Is it just me or don't all of us often go to God's Word just to find passages to support what we want to do anyway? How many times do we approach the great, eternal throne just to check off the box and rid ourselves of guilt, unconsciously thinking 'I read my Bible today so things should go ok and God should be nice to me today'?

Listening to anyone doesn't come easy. Our human condition is so selfish and self absorbed that it's hard to really listen without an agenda or 'what's in it for me' motive. The times I've seen God do the supernatural and truly beyond anything I could have hoped or imagined is when I've pleaded with Him to rid me of myself and focus my ears on His voice and then I opened my Bible.

"Please God open my ears to hear your voice. I admit I'm so often distracted by so much. Please do what you must that I would be a man who longs for your voice more than the air I breathe or the food I eat. Oh gracious King move me to obedience to whatever you ask. Please Father, speak for your servant is listening."

His Kingdom Come,
Skip