God Speaks to Us – Can We Hear Him?
God is always speaking to His children. May we never fall into a place where we don’t hear Him or where we say that we haven’t heard His voice for a long time.
It feels good to be home again. We’re thankful for our safe trip from Kathmandu to Vancouver, and we’re glad that our suitcases arrived with us. Yeah! We don’t take luggage matters forgranted—the suitcase that went missing in July between Vancouver and Berlin still hasn’t been found.
After sleeping about 11 hours last night, I set about catching up on household chores. Pine needles and leaves covered our front deck, so I stepped outside to sweep.
That’s when I heard it
At first, I wasn’t even sure what the sound was, so I stopped sweeping and listened more closely.
A nature chorus was coming from the wooded lot that’s our front yard. Birds whistled, chirped, and tweeted. Glorious!
Lest you think it odd that I didn’t immediately recognize the sound of songbirds, let me explain. I’ve just spent more than two weeks in one of the world’s poorest countries. In Kathmandu, I heard barking dogs, crowing roosters, blaring music, ringing bells, honking taxis, and roaring engines—often at the same time. I heard pigeons coo early each morning outside my window, but I seriously don’t recall hearing songbirds.
Life drowns out God’s voice
This morning’s experience gave me a bit of a reverse culture-shock jolt. It also made me think about how easily the din of daily demands drowns out God’s still, small voice.
How often has He whispered loving words or words of direction but I’ve missed them because my ears weren’t attuned to Him? How often has He spoken but I’ve not recognized His voice because my mind was too distracted by other things vying for my attention?
John 10:27 says,
“My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
When we’re walking in right relationship with the Lord, we will hear Him when He speaks to us. We’ll discern His voice from all the others competing for our attention. But we need to be alert to His presence, and we need to have hearts ready to respond.
Were songbirds even present in Kathmandu? Or where they there but drowned out by the din of other sounds? I don’t really know the answer, but I do know that I hadn’t heard a nature chorus like this for a long time.
God is always present
In contrast, one thing I know for sure—God is always present. And He’s always speaking to His children. May we never fall into a place where we don’t hear Him or where we say that we haven’t heard His voice for a long time.
Join me on Friday when I write more about hearing God’s voice. What does it sound like? How can we be sure it’s Him?
Know you are loved,
Grace
Welcome back! I love your description of the Nature Chorus in the Wooded Lot.
Looking forward to Friday!
I wish I could have recorded it. It was like a cacophony of bird chirps. Amazing!
Isaiah 55:12, Psalm 65:13, and Chronicles 16:32-33 all speak of creation
worshipping God. Sounds like the birds near you, Grace, might have been
doing this.
We can add our harmony to the symphony by joining in and praising him too and worshipping him for who he is.
Amen to that, Marge. If we don’t praise God, the rocks will cry out. Not gonna let that happen on my watch.
That’s awesome, Grace! I’m so glad to be reminded of that part of God’s Word………if we don’t, the rocks will. Wow, those birds all together in
chorus must have been awesome. Talk about a welcome back home!
🙂