Sunday, December 19, 2010

God Speaks

You might have read my last post – ‘Life is..’  Now let me take you behind the scenes of that post.  I have been thinking about writing that post for a long time. It was slowly taking shape.  But me being the procrastinating me, I just kept on delaying it. Finally on 14th Nov, a Sunday morning, before going to the church I had made up my mind about what to write and also to publish the same that very day.  It was just another Sunday Mass I was going to attend, but surprise awaited me.

While going for every Mass I try and say a small prayer, ‘Lord, speak to me through this Holy Eucharist.’ And on that day He spoke pretty clearly. On the way I was preoccupied about what to write in the next post. I had decided that I would write about what life is, about priorities and also mention the verse ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else would be added unto it.’  I went inside the Church waiting for the celebration to begin. The priest entered and guess what were his first few words. He asked us all a question – ‘What is Life?’ On any other day it would have been an ordinary introduction, but that day I was surprised to hear that. This was the same thing I was going to write about! It was as if God was confirming what was going in my mind. That was not all. As the Mass progressed we reached the Gospel acclamation part. And guess what the Choir sang – ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God....’ The very same verse i was about to mention!! I was elated, ecstatic!!! Couldn’t stop smiling and singing along. God spoke so precisely, so to-the-point to me during that Mass. I couldn’t have got a better confirmation from Him.

I come across many people who question God’s existence, many who think praying is like talking to a brick wall, many who feel God doesn’t speak and even faithful ones who think God has stopped talking! I don’t have answers to all their questions, but one thing I’m sure of is that our God speaks.

All though the Holy Scripture we can see God speaking. He spoke through the clouds, through the burning bush, through the wind, through visions, through dreams, through messengers, through prophets and angels. Even today He speaks. He speaks through people we meet, through nature, through the things we see, through priests, through the Holy Eucharist, through the Holy Scriptures. But are we listening?

I remember a quote written on a T-shirt I bought from one of the Youth conferences some years back. It read – ‘To listen to God’s voice, turn down the world’s volume.’ It’s so true. We are so surrounded with the clanging and clatter of our fast paced lives full of concerns, worries, tension, target, pressure, commitments, aspirations on one side and fun, frolic, pleasure, blissful entertainment, enjoyment on the other side that we are unable to hear our Almighty God’s gentle, still small voice which speaks straight to our heart. Let’s try, especially in this season of Advent, to tune ourselves to listen to His voice. And ‘If you listen to God’s voice, do not harden your heart.’ (Heb 3:8)

God is always speaking. Lets listen to Our Father.




God Bless!


4 comments:

  1. I'm sure you would have across instances in your life in which God spoke to you. Feel free to share them here.

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  2. Thanks Thejus for the Wonderful Sharing as usual!! I think all through my life, I have taken initiatives only because i have learnt that not only god is listening, but also speaking to us! One experience I would like to share is the time that I was confused to take one year off from work and be fully committed as a missionary. It was bit of a struggle,but after some hours of prayer, he clearly spoke through the bible from Ezekiel Chapter 12 Verses 4-6." 4 You shall bring out your baggage by day in their sight, as baggage for exile; and you shall go out yourself at evening in their sight, as those do who go into exile. 5 Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry the baggage through it. 6 In their sight you shall lift the baggage on your shoulder, and carry it out in the dark; you shall cover your face, so that you may not see the land; for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel". I think there is no clearer confirmation than this. Later on, infact I had to go through the same hurdles mentioned above. I had to leave my job, my family as in an exile and I was in the dark as nobody had a clue about the people and the place I was visiting. But I could clearly experience the holy spirit seeing through each and every step of my mission days. Praise God! What I have concluded after that is when God speaks, there is no room for doubt! You can blindly jump into the unknown.

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  3. Thanks for the sharing...
    Merry X'mas!!

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  4. My experience with Baptist/evangelical theology can best be described as a wild Roller Coaster ride: a lot of great psychological, emotional, and spiritual highs and a lot of deep psychological, emotional, and spiritual lows. Why?

    In Baptist theology, your Justification and your Sanctification---your essence as a follower of Christ...if you boil it all down...is really dependent on you and your feelings.

    Do I feel saved? Do I feel I really repented in my born again experience? Do I feel that I truly had faith when I made a decision for Christ; when I prayed a version of the Sinner's Prayer? If I am really saved, why do I feel at times that my faith is so weak? Maybe I need to do the born again experience again; maybe I need to pray the Sinner's Prayer again, just to be 100% sure that I am saved. I want to know without any doubt that I am saved, and if I do not feel saved, I begin to doubt my salvation.

    Baptist/evangelical theology tells me that I will always feel Christ's presence and strength inside me, if I am a true believer. But what if I don't feel him there sometimes? If it is true that I should always be able to hear God speak to me, in an inner voice or feel his inner presence move me/lead me to do his will, what is going on when I don't hear anything or feel anything? Have I committed some unknown sin and he is refusing to hear me? Or is the reason that I don't hear or feel him present within me... is because I'm not really saved!

    I was so incredibly happy to find orthodox (confessional) Lutheranism and find out that my feelings have nothing to do with my Justification, my salvation, nor with my Sanctification, my walk with my Savior and Lord! My salvation was accomplished 100% by God.

    http://www.lutherwasnotbornagain.com/2013/09/tired-of-baptistevangelical-roller.html

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