Do You Listen Carefully for the Voice of God?

Posted on Sep 21, 2017 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional
Posted by : Denise J. Hughes

Sitting in the hospital chapel following my brother’s car accident, I search my backpack for something to do. I decide on my notebook and open it to the first blank page. Near the top I write Dear Diary. I’ve never been a diary keeper, but I don’t know how many hours I’ll be in the hospital today. I figure I might as well spend the time writing. Except Diary isn’t a real person, so I feel stymied.

Swinging my feet beneath the pew, I look around the chapel and see the now-familiar crucifix on the wall. I scratch out ~~Diary~~ and write Jesus. With a real person to write to, the words pour onto the page. I tell Jesus everything that’s been happening. Somehow the simple act of telling Jesus about my day makes the day seem a little lighter.

When the hospital days end, I’m back at school and behind on my schoolwork. I stop talking to Jesus with words on paper. But years later, when I return home from summer camp and begin reading my Bible, I pull out a notebook again, this time to write down my favorite verses, and sometimes entire psalms.

My favorite stories include the ark of the covenant, God’s holy dwelling place. I love how the boy Samuel slept in the temple, not far from the ark. I want to be close to God’s presence like that. When Samuel hears God’s voice, he thinks the priest is calling him. But the priest eventually figures out God is speaking to Samuel and he gives the best advice ever. He tells Samuel to respond to God by saying, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”

This prayer becomes the cry of my heart. I pray it throughout my day, especially when I sit down to read my Bible. Speak, for Your servant is listening. I write these words in my notebook.

The time I spend reading and writing the words of Scripture reshapes me. More than anything, a deep thirst to know more, to understand more, grows inside me. I finish my senior year of high school and continue to visit the aisles of the Christian bookstore often. I want to hear from other people who have experienced what I’ve been experiencing. Their stories fascinate me. God has been changing the lives of men and women well beyond biblical times. And there’s a common thread among every one of these life changes: the Bible. People have been hearing God’s voice through the pages of the Bible for centuries, and He’s still speaking through His Word today.

God isn’t a silent God. The more time we spend in the Bible, the more familiar we become with His voice, making it easier to recognize it when He speaks. The prayer I started praying as a teenager in high school is the same prayer I pray today, and it’s a prayer I encourage you to make your own as well: Speak, for Your servant is listening.