Do you remember as a little child when you would be talking
a mile a minute or when you weren’t supposed to be talking, your parents or
your teacher would put their finger up to their mouth and say SHHHHHHHH? That
was the way many of us learned the cue to be quiet. Nobody has to explain what it means when
someone says SHHHHHHHHH, right? It’s universal. We live in a culture where everyone has to
give their opinion. Everybody has to have a chance to talk. It seems now that
we’ve taken that into our relationship with God. We want to tell him all about
our situations and issues but whenever He wants to give us the answer, we can’t
hear him because we’re still talking. Well today, if you close your eyes and
really listen, you can hear the Lord saying “SHHHHHHHHHHH…I’m speaking.”
It’s so interesting how often you hear people say that they
need to hear from God or how long it’s taking to get an answer. But we fail to
recognize that God hasn’t stopped speaking or answering, we’ve just stopped
listening. Do you remember in Exodus 14 when the children of Israel were at the
Red Sea and the Egyptians were quickly approaching? They began to cry out in
fear and ask Moses why he led them out of Egypt to die. Sound familiar? You
know when you got to that trial that you didn’t see coming and it caused you to
chase after God but when the breakthrough didn’t come as expected you began to
question God’s plan? They were ready to turn back but Moses told them to “stand by and see the salvation of the Lord…”
but the key scripture for today is found in verse 14, “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” (Ex. 14: 14
NASB) Right after he said that, the Lord began to speak and He told Moses
exactly what to do and they were saved! God
couldn’t tell them what to do when they were talking and crying. Shhhhhhh…God is speaking
What about our friend Elijah? We find him in 1 Kings 19 in
quite a mess after killing all of the false prophets of Baal and ticking
Jezebel off. She promised that she was
going to kill him so he ran for his life into the wilderness. Like many of us
may have done, he started talking and asked the Lord to take his life. He just
couldn’t see a way out of his situation so all he saw was the end. But I am
grateful for a God that knows what we will face and will send angels to minister
to us in our low place. The angel of the Lord fed Elijah and he was able to
travel for 40 days on that food until he reached a cave on Horeb, the mountain
of God. The Lord came to him and asked why he was there. Elijah responded and The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
This is when it gets good, folks. “Then a great and powerful wind tore the
mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After
the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but
the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood
at the mouth of the cave.” (1 Kings 19: 11–13
NIV) Sometimes we get caught up in thinking we need a big grand sermon, a
famous preacher, or thunder and lightning for God to be speaking to us. We keep
talking and searching and we miss the fact that He is speaking to us in a
whisper. Shhhhhh…God is speaking
Whenever I need a word from God, I have to
put myself in a place of silence. A place where there is no distraction. Before
I write this blog, I pray and then lie quietly and just listen. God is always
speaking but we are missing it. We’re missing it as individuals, as families,
and as the church. He wants us to know His
heart and hear what He is telling us but we seem to like the sound of our own
voices too much. Proverbs 10:8 says “the wise
of heart will receive commands, but a babbling fool will be ruined.” (NASB) It’s
time to be quiet and listen, friends, because God is speaking.
May your hearts and ears be open to receive
what the Lord is saying to you today…God bless!
AMEN…
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