Are ya listening?

God has no use for the prayers of the people who won't listen to him.  Proverbs 28:9

Growing up, we went to church every Sunday and not just church but Sunday School.  I can remember my parents waking me up each Sunday morning and me cleaning myself up and putting on my "Sunday best".  It was this way for as long as I can remember.  Even when we moved from Iowa to Virgina, we still sought out a church and began going.  There is one Pastor that sticks out to me though.  He would be preaching from the pulpit and would ask the congregation, "Are ya listening?".  It got to be the expected question every week during the sermon but today it has me thinking....

Am I listening?  Am I listening to what God's will for me is?  Am I taking time to be still and allowing the Creator to speak to me? 

The busier we get in our lives, the less time we allow for those quiet moments of reflection where God has the ability to touch our hearts.  And yet, the more we allow for those quiet moments, the more blessed we could feel because through those quiet moments, we have the opportunity to grow closer to God.  Even when your prayers are weak, God is listening to you so why aren't we extending the same respect to Him?

I will be the first one to tell you that I get wrapped up in my day and before I know it, it's dinner time and the day is practically over.  I too often allow the daily stresses and obstacles of life overcome me and rob me of those precious moments I could have spent with God.  But I truly feel that regardless of how busy my day is, God pushes his way into my mind.  Lately I have found myself humming worship tunes.  Out of nowhere, I'll strick up my own worship and praise band and start belting out tunes.  Tunes like, Our God Saves, In Christ Alone, It Is Well With My Soul, Trading My Sorrows.  I'll start hearing these types of songs in my head and amazingly enough, I'll remember the words and just start singing.  And even crazier than me singing is that, these tunes filter themselves in during moments of my day when things are calmer.  I truly feel in my heart that God is filling my head.  God is controling my thoughts at that moment as a reminder that I need to turn to him.  It's interesting to me to stop and look back and see that whatever song might have been playing in my head, it meshes perfectly with whatever circumstance or struggle I've dealt with that day.  I'm completely convinced that regardless of what I try to do, God's will for me will prevail.  I can't stop it from overcoming me.  I can't make my own rules and expect to be the exception to God's.  And in those moments of song, I immediatly stop thinking about my own excuses and trials but start looking UP.  Looking to Jesus. 

Paula Rinehart once said, "The amazing thing is that God follows us into the blackened ruins of our failed dreams, our misbegotten mirages, into the house of cards that has collapsed on us in some way and he speaks, not with the chastisement we feel we deserve, but of all things, with tenderness".  All things with tenderness, well that my friends sounds like joyful songs could be included in that one little statement.

I'm just as guilty as everybody else but I ask you now, are ya listening?  In Proverbs 3:5-6 it states, Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own.  Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track. 

Listen for God's voice everywhere you go and in everything you do...whether it be through reading His Word, quiet time of prayer, or simply singing along with the song God has placed on your heart.  God wants quiet time with you...

Now, back to that Pastor...he always ended his sermons with saying, "Thats enough preachin', let's sing"...well folks, that IS enough preachin', I'm gonna go sing a little tune that just popped into my head....


Dear Lord, I have so much to learn and You have so much to teach me.  Give me the wisdom and discernment to be still and hear Your voice, today and everyday.  Amen