One of the readings at church on Sunday was 1 Samuel 3:1-10. This section recounts when Samuel was called by God but at first didn't recognize that it was the Lord calling him. He kept getting up and rushing in to Eli because Samuel believed it was Eli calling him. It took a little while for Eli to realize what was going on too, so if you're not sure if you're getting a message from God don't feel badly. You're in good company.
As people of faith we often with that God would just TELL us what to do! We want to get a clear message...an obvious answer to our prayers.
Of course, we also want the answer we WANT, not the one we GET.
How do we know we're getting an answer to our prayer? Messages are being sent to us all the time but we're not too good at interpretting them. And since each of us has asked for different things and different types of help, it would be foolish of me to say "Here's how you know it's from God..."
I heard Joel Osteen once say that the reason we don't hear God speaking to us is because we listen with our ears but God is speaking to us in our hearts. I liked that and I think it's accurate. When I have a "feeling" that I should be doing something and not something else I believe that's the Holy Spirit getting a message to me.
There are also times when I've prayed for God to just tell me what to do! Just send me an email or call me or something. And as crazy as it sounds, a day or two or several days later, I'll get an email or a phone call from someone who has information important to what I was praying about.
There are also those times unfortunately when the answer is different from what I wanted to hear. We have to recognize that sometimes the answer is "no" or "not right now" or "trust Me...you don't really want that".
Prayer and reflection has helped me become more sensitive to and open to what God is trying to tell me.
What can YOU do to be more open to the messages He's sending?
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