Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” —1 Samuel 3:10
Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, “You are My friends…” (John 15:14). Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord’s this week? If I had realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not have deliberately disobeyed it. But most of us show incredible disrespect to God because we don’t even hear Him. He might as well never have spoken to us.
The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God all the time through the devotion of hearing. A flower, a tree, or a servant of God may convey God’s message to me. What hinders me from hearing is my attention to other things. It is not that I don’t want to hear God, but I am not devoted in the right areas of my life. I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions. God may say whatever He wants, but I just don’t hear Him. The attitude of a child of God should always be, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” If I have not developed and nurtured this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God’s voice at certain times. At other times I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things— things which I think I must do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Have you heard God’s voice today?
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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord, As usual, some of Chambers writing today resonates with me and pulls up a “Yes!” inside… while other parts cause me to question, Am I missing something? Is he missing something? Are we on the same page? On the one hand, he shows that we are friends and clearly states the goal…
The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41)
My question is, “Where is the place for “commands” in a Love relationship? or even a Friend relationship? I agree with Chambers when he says, “If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants.” There doesn’t seem to be much place for commands in my relationship with my friends or my spouse and I don’t sense Commands as the way to improve our relationship either. As you know, I find the word “Suggestion” to gain more traction with with regard to behavior change than “Command”
I know it sounds strange to call them the “10 Suggestions” or that Love is the greatest suggestion. But when I think about it, I see that a suggestion from a Loving Father, who I know and want to please, does indeed motivate me more than a command from a lofty Zeus type of God who will fling lightning bolts if commands are not obeyed. I know I can never measure up to that kind of God… so after trying for a time, a few decades, I give up, breathe a sigh of relief and find that loving Father who waited on the front porch for his prodigal son to return. He had never commanded him not to leave. Although I’m sure he had suggested that it wasn’t the best idea, He had divided the inheritance as the wayward son had decided he wanted… and then he had waited. Isn’t that what you do with us? Isn’t that the kind of God that you are? You want the best for us and give us suggestions. All the time. Lord help me to hear … Like Lauren Daigle says in the song….”First”
Commands and Suggestions are merely two ways for “blind men to describe their experience of an elephant. There are other perspectives also like “Laws” as in Law of Gravity, or Law of cause and effect. They are all true and you stumble if you think your way of seeing is the only way. Realize that you are a work in process, a wounded soldier on a healing journey and use whatever is working for you right now. Remember the prodigal son left and the prodigal son returned. Which do you think is more important? Most would say the returning. But without leaving, how could he return? And remember the older brother never left OR returned. So learn returning. Learn returning. Learn it after you’ve fallen off your horse. And learn returning during prayer when your mind wanders off. Practice it every day. There are many ways to get closer to me. Why do you think there are all those names of God in the Bible that you were looking at on the poster in Church yesterday. They are all true. And one will resonate strongest at a particular time. And another time it will be a different one.
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