One text message
can change the course of a life. So can discerning God's voice.
She really
didn’t want to go to church that Sunday night. After all, they were just
showing the movie, God’s Not Dead.
But her husband wanted to go, so she obliged. Near the end of the movie, concert-goers were encouraged to text "God's Not Dead" to every contact in their phone. Although she wasn’t at the concert, she felt the urge to text her son, who struggled with an
addiction. Little did she know he was about to take another hit. Receiving the
text from his mom at that critical moment changed his mind. She discerned God’s
voice.
I once discerned God’s voice as well. My wife and I were eating at a local restaurant.
Four highway patrolmen sat at the table next to ours, one of whom I was
acquainted with. God’s Spirit urged me to perform a particular act of kindness
for them. It was Memorial Day, as well as the day we were honoring medical
responders, firefighters, and law enforcement personnel. Reason prompted me to
consider the cost; God wanted me to act on His prompting. So I listened.
God promises
believers we can discern his mind, and the psalmist wanted to do just that.
Unfortunately, I’ve missed many opportunities because I either didn’t discern his voice or lacked faith—faith that God would replace the money the act of
kindness cost.
God gives us the
ability to know the mind of Christ, but it doesn’t happen automatically. Just
as keeping in touch with family and friends helps us understand them and their
likes and wants, so the same happens in our relationship with Christ. Through prayer,
Bible study, and meditation, we learn who he is, what he desires for us,
and how to please him. His Spirit may indwell us, but unless we stay in constant
contact with him, his Spirit’s promptings will grow fainter and fainter.
Stay close to
God so you won’t miss opportunities he sends. And when he sends them, take a
leap of faith and act upon what he tells you to do.
Father,
give me the wisdom to recognize your voice and the faith to obey it.
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