We have heard people say over and over again that they wish they could hear God. Do you hear God? If we have trouble hearing God, do you think God is the problem, or is it us? God continually wants to guide us, and you would think that if we truly love God, we would put our focus on God every day.
What Is Our Brain Focused On?
Too often we can find ourselves only seeking God’s guidance when we are in trouble, or have a big decision hanging over us.
The following verses will give us insight into what God wants from us.
Matthew 6: 31, 33-34 – So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Our Heads Get Too Busy
God wants to guide us in the everyday decisions of our lives. Our heads get very busy with worries we face every day. This busyness can even include the daily thoughts of what we eat, what we drink, and what we wear. When our heads get busy with all these other issues, it is impossible for us to focus on God. When our head is focused on so many other things, it will be nearly impossible for us to hear God. God is speaking to us, we are just too busy in our heads to hear God.
We Need to Be Still
Psalm 46:10 tells us – “Be still, and know that I am God”
Now I know what you’re thinking, “I have so much to do on any given day, how in the world am I supposed to be still?” Well, to start with, so much of our own busyness we have created for ourselves. When this is the case, we need to take some of that busyness out of our lives, then we will be in a better place to hear God.
What About Our Responsibilities?
Some of the busyness in our life is just part of our humanity. There are responsibilities we have that require us to be busy from time to time. So, what do we do with this? There is a saying I heard related to peace that best describes how we should deal with this busyness, due to the responsibility in our lives. Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.
Do We Really Trust God?
If we claim to trust God, we should be able to find peace. If we apply this same thought to being busy, and we trust God, we should be able to focus on God in the midst of our busyness. In fact, this is exactly what the verses listed above tell us to do. Be still and seek God’s guidance and when we do this everything else will fall into place.
Is this why we have so much trouble in our life? We are so busy and focused on the noise in our head that we can’t hear God. When this happens, we simply trust our own thoughts, our own judgment and our own desires, instead of following God’s leading. Instead of trusting God, we trust ourselves. One more example of putting ourselves in front of God.
So many people have fooled themselves into thinking they are doing what God wants, when they have been doing what they want all along. Aside from loving God, putting other people above ourselves is the number one thing God wants from us. If we can’t do that with other people, that we can directly see and interact with, how do we think we can do it with God, that we cannot directly see and interact with? The simple answer is, we can’t.
We Call on God When We Need the Big Guns
Like we said earlier, too often we only truly seek God when we are in trouble or have a big decision hanging over us. We could restate this to say we only seek God for the “big” deals. Have we ever stopped to think that maybe if we had sought God in all the “little” deals along the way, we wouldn’t be faced with panicking over the perceived “big” deals?
1 Kings 19: 11-12 – The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” 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.
God Wants Our Day-To-Day
Why is it we want to focus on God in the sensational? Why don’t we want to focus on God in the day-to-day? The simple answer is, we don’t think we need to. If we truly felt like we needed to, then we would make sure we did. In reality, we are fine putting ourselves in the place of God for our day-to-day routine. In addition to this, even if we wanted to hear God, the noise in our head is so loud, it is impossible to hear God’s gentle whisper.
Many of us can relate to someone coming to us at the last minute, when they are in trouble and see no way out and are wanting our help. We tell them, “if you had only come to me sooner, I could have helped you resolve this.” Why don’t we learn from the real-life examples God gives us? This is the same thing God says to us when we wait until the last minute to seek answers from God. God says to us, “why didn’t you come to me all along and I would have guided you through this.” God wants our day-to-day, and if we would give it to God, it would probably eliminate our last-minute pleas to God to get us out of trouble.
So Where Do We Start?
First, we must decide that we actually want to hear from God. Seriously, do we want to give up control of our life and let God guide us? Second, we need to clear our schedules of the things that make us too busy to hear God’s voice. Third, we must train ourselves to be still even in the midst of necessary busy times, so that we can still hear God. Fourth, and most importantly, we must learn to distinguish between our own desires and God’s guidance. God’s guidance will always lead in the following ways; love God and love others, treat others as you want to be treated, and be humble and consider others more important than yourself. Fifth, quit looking for God only in the sensational. Let’s all make the commitment to start looking for God in the day-to-day.
Church On The Back Deck 