When You Can't Hear His Voice

We all have situations in our lives that need Godly resolution.  We pray and we wait.  We wait on the Lord to fix the problem, or fix us so that we view the issue from a different perspective.  We try to be still and listen for His gentle whisper, but sometimes, we just cannot seem to hear it and we don’t know what to do.  Gospel Artist Smokie Norful has a song that says, “When you can’t hear My voice, please trust My plan.”   

Sometimes I feel like giving up
It seems like my best just ain't good enough
Lord, if You hear me, I'm calling You
Do You see, do You care all about
What I'm goin' through?

And then He said, one more day
One more step
See, I'm preparing you for Myself
And when you can't hear My voice
Please, trust My plan
I'm the Lord, I see, and, yes, I understand

I cannot be the only one who has experienced this - an issue so big that we don’t trust ourselves to act on it properly.   I’ve even proposed solutions and asked the Lord for a sign to confirm my thinking.  Sometimes we look around for someone to advise us, someone like the prophets of the Old Testament to give us a Word sent from the Lord.  Hebrews 1:1-2 tells us, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.”  What shall we do when we can’t hear His voice?  I have a few suggestions for when this situation arises. 

Consult His Word.  I used to think the Bible was all about good people - people who never sinned.  I didn’t care to read it because I knew I was a sinner and to read about all of these good people would just serve to make me feel poorly about myself.  My thinking couldn’t be further from the truth!  There’s only one person in the Bible who never sinned and that’s Jesus Christ.  Reading about Him should convict our hearts!  I used to think the Bible was not relatable, that it was old and not applicable to the present.  I was wrong about that, too!  There are stories about hundreds of people, maybe thousands, who sinned plenty, who faced similar situations as we face today, who acted on selfish instincts, who did not heed the word of God!  “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”  Romans 15:4  When you need to know what to do, go to the Bible.  If you need to know what to read, use Google to locate Scriptures about specific topics.  Then, don’t just read individual verses, read the passage or read the chapter.  Reading just a verse can cause you to take Scripture out of context and lead you to poor decision making.  

Know His Character  Once we are familiar with His Word we begin to understand God’s character, we can conduct ourselves likewise.  We should, however, still pray and read Scripture.  You may have a Bible that prints the actual words of Jesus in red letters.  Reading the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John give us insight into Jesus’s actual advice, His examples, and His warnings.  Knowing God’s character helps us make decisions and conduct ourselves on a consistent basis that will glorify Him. 

Do Everything in Love As you wait on the Lord to speak to you, knowing He speaks in His own time, let everything you do, be done in love.  Yes, Jesus said, we should even love our enemies!  “‘You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.’”  Matthew 5:43-45  Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”  In every situation, love should be our response.  Love is what unites us with God and in relationship with our fellow man.  Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  Luke 10:27  Do everything in love.  Amen.  


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As a member of the Bible Gateway Blogger Grid, from time to time, we are offered free, advance copies of books and other materials to review.  I recently received a copy of the Matthew Henry Daily Devotional Bible.  In our home, we have a set of Matthew Henry commentaries, so I was excited to see this new offering.  The devotional is hard cover, with a dust jacket, about 1460 pages.  I say about because is contains several color pages of historic maps that are not numbered.   There are 366 devotions - why 366, I suppose it's because they are taking leap year into account.   The devotions are not chronological, but the page number for each devotion is listed in the Table of Contents, and at the end of each half-page devotion, it states where the next day's devotion is found.  One thing I didn't expect, is that this is a Bible, that also happens to be a devotional - a great addition a NKJV Bible!  I highly recommend this resource. 
#BibleGatewayPartner         Order your copy today from the  Faith Gateway Store or from Amazon.

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