Speak To Me

Speak To Me

I don’t know about you but growing up, my whole life was spent in church. From scripture exams to youth on Friday nights to week day prayer meetings and band practice and Sunday mornings service. Netball league with other churches, half night prayer meetings and visiting other churches events as well.

I’m probably forgetting some of the activities because at 40*(cough) I often forget where I left my cellphone and hunt frantically for it, only to realise I’m taking a call on it.

The phrase I would hear often, which stuck in my head was,”God spoke to me and He said.....” or “I asked the Lord and He said....”

The younger, naive me often thought that these were special people. I imagined people lying in bed and God calling to them like he did Samuel. Or that like Moses, He appeared to them in a burning bush or a fluffy cloud.

The older, wiser me realises that God speaks in so many different ways.

Through a sermon or a podcast, through a wise friend or a favourite song. Through silence and through a well timed phone call or text. Through someone we don’t particularly like or through a loving husband or wife.

Through my children who usually are misbehaving and making me shout but suddenly sprout words of spiritual revelation.

God literally will use anyone and anything at His disposal to speak to us.

The best way, I have found, besides all of these, is to just open the word of God. Not the lucky packet kind of opening. Whatever scripture my eyes find, that is God’s message for me. No. A deliberate time set aside to dive into the word. A deliberate seeking of what He wants to say to me.

Not just ‘the Lord will bless me and make His face to shine upon me’ scriptures. The scriptures that reprimand and rebuke and discipline. The ‘thou shalt not covet’ and ‘turn the other cheek’ scriptures. The scriptures that make me cringe.

Having had an annoying experience one Sunday, my husband gave me some advice about dealing with a certain somebody. Some of my friends also, like they always do, tried to pacify me and point me in the right direction.

Having heard all that they said, I sat down to catch up with my One Year Bible reading plan.

And whilst the younger me would have wanted to hear God’s voice speaking like he did with Moses and Jacob, at this point in time, I do believe I might keel over with a panic attack if He actually did speak like that.

I did however, hear exactly what He wanted me to hear, through His word. It was loud. And it was clear.

Proverbs 12:16 A fool's anger is known at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

Challenge accepted Lord. May I be less foolish and more prudent.