Single Thread

Oh! give me Samuel’s ear,
An open ear, O Lord,
Alive and quick to hear
Each whisper of Thy Word;
Like him to answer to Thy call
And to obey Thee first of all.¹

I finished reading Bill Hybels’ The Power of a Whisper.  The primary reason why I started my daily devotions was due to forgetting what God’s voice sounded like.  Months would go by and I still couldn’t recognize what His voice even with the daily devotions.  I felt my distant from Him felt even further during this period of trying to get closer.  When I read the first chapter from Bill Hybels’ new book, I knew I had to pick it up immediately.  What caught Hybels’ attention (and mine too) is the story of Samuel as a young boy hearing God’s voice.

Here I am, you called me. [...]
Speak, for your servant is listening²

Just thinking that God felt He would get to a little boy’s ear while asleep caught my attention.  God didn’t try to get little Samuel’s attention once but 4 times!  And the response that Samuel gives Him, “Here I am, you called me,” and then, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  God did and he still does speak when you’re willing to listen.

Daily, I end my prayer with that.  I ask Him to speak because I, a servant of His, is listening.

1. “Hushed Was the Evening Hymn” by James Drummon Burns [↩]
2. 1 Samuel 3:9-10 [↩]

Do not let your hearts be troubled, Trust in God; trust also in me (John 14:1)

The following was originally written on May 23rd in a Moleskine I keep with me for taking notes.  Every once in awhile, I’ll write a stream of thought.  This piece has been duplicated on this post without alteration to the stream of thought.

Mark 6:25-34

I am told not to worry about the details of this world.  He says not to worry about tomorrow.  I should not need to worry about the food I need, the clothes over me, or whether or not I am provided shelter.

Abandon these things of the world—not personally, but quit searching for it. Seek God first, not these little details of the world.  God promises He will provide.

What’s really stopping me from walking in faith?  He is there by my side.  He pulls me forward in the direction I asked for.  He’s feeding me the knowledge I need to understand that this is what I need to do—where I am going—what worldly things I need to leave behind.

Despite my current worldly struggles and sins, I don’t feel Him abandoning me now nor forever.  He is implanted in me.  Trust Him.  Walk forward in faith.  He will provide every need.

This was my first step in trusting God.  The second step was to Job’s story.  In case you haven’t read Job, here’s the gist of it.  Job loved and feared the Lord and because of this he was blessed with a fruitful life.  God allowed the devil to take away anything and everything important to Job.  He didn’t understand why and cried out to the Lord why these horrible events has happened to him.  At that point the skies opened up and God reminded Job his awesomeness of God (beings in Job 38).  Don’t forget, God is and always is in control.

Once I realized I can authentically trust God that my life is clearly in His hands, I moved on to the next step: planning.  When I’m planning, do not ever forget to put God first.  If the Holy Spirit is truly moving in you, you can and will make every decision that crosses your path with the wisdom provided by God through the Holy Spirit.  You are still making the decisions (make no mistake that you will always have your free will), but the Holy Spirit will guide you appropriately.

To man belongs the plans of the heart,
but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue (Proverbs 16:1)

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed. (Proverbs 16:3)

In his heart a man plans his course,
but the Lord determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)

God’s will becomes yours.  Pray. Speak. Listen, carefully.

A buddy of mine and I started doing daily devotions a couple of months ago.  We have a pretty good system to hold each other accountable: if you fail to do your daily devotion, you buy the other guy dinner for that day.  I believe we probably failed a total of 3 to 4 times in the past two and a half months or so.  For myself, I believe that’s a pretty good devotion streak since I have never attempted anything like this as a Christian for 10 years.

There’s really only two things I try to get done first thing in the morning:

1. Get in the Word (The Bible)
2. Listen and speak in solitude (Prayer)

As a Christian, getting into the Word should be easy.  The Bible is supposed to be our go-to documentation on life.  It is divine Scripture passed to man from God.  It is the living Word of God. It not only teaches lessons from the past, but I strongly believe its teachings have complete validity in the present and future.  But as I mentioned above, I’ve considered myself a Christian for over 10 years and I haven’t really read the Bible.  Sure, I’ll jump around between books and chapters to get some kind of insightful verse to shoehorn why things are happening to me now, but I haven’t been using the Scripture to aid what I’m really struggling with: prayer.

Up until a few months ago, I mostly treated prayer as a one way communication to God.  Sure, I tried to listen… I really tried.  I believed after a few years of being content on Christianity, I forgot what God’s voice sounded like.  And now, I struggle to recognize His voice.  That’s a problem.  I chose to follow Jesus Christ, and now I fail to recognize Him.  Has He abandoned me?  Never!  But I feel there are times it feels like I’ve given up on Him—my lack of devotion.

This is how my motivation for my daily devotions come from.  I’m living in stagnation.  I know there’s more to life than this.   Instead of living daily through drudgery, it’s time to discover how I will remove this life of discontentment.  And I will do it through these two things: absorbing the Word and prayer.