Lionheart

Being a young person, I hear people who I come in contact with always ask about ‘hearing from God’.  ”How do I hear from God”, “What is hearing from God?”, “How do you know God is speaking?”, “Is God speaking?”, etc–it varies.

This is huge in the college/young professional time of life but it is relevant to all.  People always want to hear a message or hear a talk about ‘How to hear from God’. These same individuals really get desperate about hearing from Him when it comes time to make a big decision, career choice, etc.

We always want the magic formula or the audible voice to just tell us something.  We are so quick to put the ‘hearing from God’ problem back on God with the excuse that He doesn’t speak anymore.  We have all heard the excuse, “Oh yea, God used to speak to people in the Bible, but He doesn’t do that anymore”.

WRONG!!  God still speaks.  God is constantly speaking for that matter.  The problem isn’t on His end, but rather it’s on ours.  We have dropped the ball.  We can’t hear God for the noise.  There are so many things that are going on–so many thing that demand our attention that we can barely even think straight.  We run through our day, crossing out things on our to-do list, consume a bit of food, pay our dues in our relationships, go to bed, and start it all over again the next day.  All the while–God is speaking the whole time.

It’s left up to us.  We have got to cut out the noise.  Get in His Word.  Spend a few minutes on our knees in prayer–and how bout this, don’t ask for stuff the whole time–just sit in silence.  You would be amazed at what God can do in our silence.  Let’s get our focus off of us and on Him and what He is saying.  The Word says that we know His voice.  It’s just left up to us being quiet enough to listen.

Time is an invaluable resource.  It is so valuable due to the fact that there is only so much of it–60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year, etc.  Such a set resource is an ultimate equalizer for all people.  It is a level playing field.  Each individual has to decide how to spend their time.  The way time is spent says a lot about the individual.  Many character traits are revealed in the use of time such as loyalty, devotion, dedication, etc.  There are so many things that compete for our time–work, class, relationships, faith, hobbies, “things we just have to do”, etc.  The fact of the matter is, we have to choose what to spend our time on.  Our choice is a direct reflection of who we are as individuals.

Jesus has really been dealing with me lately about how I spend my time.  With the ton of things that I have to get done each day, it is so easy to shift things around and shorten things in order to get things done and ‘check it off the list’.  He hit me hard the other day as He brought to my realization that I have not been giving Him the time that I should.  This hit me like a ton of bricks, but it was so true (Thank God for those moments!).  I have not been dedicating as much time to Him as I should.  I have not spent as much time as I should cultivating that relationship with Him.  That’s the essence of a relationship–it calls for an investment of time.  A relationship with Jesus is not built by checking the quiet time off the list each day.  It comes from a genuine hunger and thirst for Jesus.  It comes from a hunger and thirst for more of Him–a hunger and thirst for righteousness.  There is no better way to spend our time than in cultivating a relationship with Jesus.  When we give Him our time, it is an act of worship.  We use what could be argued as our most precious resource and give it back to Him; it is truly a sign of complete dedication and devotion to Him.

When I think about how I can improve things in my life, I like to go to the ultimate example–Jesus.  He set the standard, and there is so much to learn from Him.  One of the things that He did throughout the Gospels was get away to have His time with the Father.  On countless occasions, the Scriptures indicate that ‘Jesus withdrew to pray’ or ‘Jesus withdrew from the crowds’ or ‘Jesus went up to the mountain to pray’.  Jesus saw the importance of this continual time with the Father.  It was where He was strengthened and built up.  It was in these times that He received sustenance and direction from the Father.  He was the Son of God, yet He saw the importance of constant fellowship with the Father–He continually cultivated their relationship.  He only had about 33 years on this earth, so if He set aside some of His valuable time to spend with the Father, then I am taking notes.  Jesus use of His time was worship unto the Father just as our use of our time should be worship unto Him as well.