From My Utmost for His Highest

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him . . . —Psalm 25

Chambers asks, "Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself— to get us in touch with His purposes."

Consider this excerpt from A Rooster Once Crowed:

Listen. Have you ever had lunch with a friend who shows up late, talks for the whole hour, telling you exactly what’s going on in her life and then throws twenty dollars on the table midsentence and runs out? You’d say, “No. Wait a minute. Let me tell you what I think. Don’t you care what’s going on with me? You’ve got a couple of things wrong about me and I want to make some plans with you later. Wait.”

Often, this is exactly what we do to God.

Starting today, after prayer and in a quiet and private spot, set a timer for a couple of minutes. Just sit silently and listen. Have a pen and paper to jot down anything that comes to mind because, more often than not, God has something that He has died to tell you. Take a moment and just listen for it.

When I do this, I’ve had things placed in my mind that I hadn’t thought of in 15 years. It could be a sin or a person to call or a job left undone. Get quiet with God and give it time. I’ll also guarantee that, at first, you’ll feel like it’s fruitless or that you’re doing it wrong.

Try to clear your mind—I concentrate on the color black and when my thoughts wander, I bring back a black screen to clear my head. As you progress, add a minute or two. Don’t think about the time, just enjoy it and sink into the quietness of it.

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”[i]

If you will give audience to God’s whispers, He won’t have to shout. And if He does shout, you’ll recognize it as a loud and resounding, “I love you.”

EXCERPTED FROM A Rooster Once Crowed: A Commentary on the Greatest Story Ever Told, Afterword-Questions from the Front (pgs. 196-197). AVAILABLE FORMATS are linked at Full Porch Press.

It works. I promise. There's something that God died to tell you.

I love you.

#questionsfromthefront

[i] Lewis, C.S., The Problem of Pain