ListenDaily – 30 April 2010: Hear?
Let us continue the 1-2-3 challenge. In case you didn't see it on Monday, it is explained below.
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3: 16-17
The second minute of the 1-2-3 says: "Open your Bible and read for 2 minutes. This is God talking to you through His Word. Listen to Him." The Scriptures include such a wide variety of stories, chronicles, parables, and lineages...how do we know where to start?
If you do not feel led to a particular book, try John. Read about the Jesus who was there at creation. Read of His miracles and His incredible compassion. Read about the Good Shepherd, about Jesus being the only Way to the Father. Read about the promise of the Holy Spirit.
These are God's words for you. Can you hear Him?
Questions:
1. What is your take on the Holy Scriptures?
2. Do you understand them to be God's specific words?
3. Do you understand them to be for you?
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May we read and hear. Jim.
THE 1-2-3 CHALLENGE:
Starting today, and then first thing tomorrow morning, I challenge you to listen to God, with this five minute exercise:
1) Do this as soon as you wake up. Set your clock a few minutes early if that is what you need to get up ahead of the household noise. Lay your Bible by your bed as a reminder.
2) Go to the quietest place in your house, outside, your kitchen, your bathroom...wherever.
3) Pray for 1 minute that God would speak to you. Audibly, out loud, ask Him to remove Satan from your presence for this time. Ask Him to remove distractions and mental clutter. During this time, do not ask Him for anything else, do not thank Him for anything else, do not pray for anyone else (but please find another prayer time for all these things).
4) Open your Bible and read for 2 minutes. This is God talking to you through His Word. Listen to Him.
5) Close your Bible and be silent for 3 minutes. Listen for Him. He may come as a thought, a nudge, an idea. For a while, He may seem hard to hear. There is so much clutter in our minds! Keep listening.
This may seem difficult. You will hear every creaking tree branch. You will hear every barking dog. But like Elijah's time in the cave, God is not in the tree branch, God is not in the dog. Persevere. Listen for the gentle whisper
INTERESTING THOUGHT:
"Give me a hundred preachers, and I care not a straw if they are clergy or laity, who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I will shake the gates of hell and set up the Kingdom of God on this earth." John Wesley
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