Q: "Why doesn't God speak louder?"
A: I thought this was a really great question. I know I have wondered that myself; especially, when I was seeking answers to things. I often wished I had a secret phone that I could pick up and ask God questions and He could give answers to me audibly. I really think that would be cool.
There is no doubt in my mind that God is still speaking today. I think maybe a little better question would be "are we listening?"Our lives are so busy and chaotic sometimes I wonder if God was to speak audibly, would we hear Him? I suspect we wouldn't.
Throughout the Bible, God's "voice" is compared to many different things. Psalm 29:4-5 says, "The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon." In that same chapter, verse 7 says, "The voice of the LORD strikes with flashes of lightning." It does seem to me that the Bible is telling us that God has turned the volume down on his voice. It seems to me that God is speaking loud enough.
I really believe that most of the time we have trouble hearing God because we have not oriented our lives to really hear His voice. I am always surprised at the amount of people who desire to hear from God, that don’t seriously spend any time cultivating a relationship with Him.
How can we hear God and know what He is saying if we don’t know the God we are serving? One of the reasons reading the Bible is so important is that it helps us get to know God. And the better we know God, the better equipped we will be to hear Him speak in our lives.
Friday, January 11, 2008
On Hearing God
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7 comments:
I think a loving God speaks quite clearly that he does not exist. All you have to do is go to a Children's hospital to see hundreds of innocent children dying from any number of horrible diseases. Leukemia, cystic fibrosis, brain cancer the list goes on and on. If you believe that a God exists that created all things and also loves humans, why would he create these diseases? The answer is clear. He wouldn't. So this leaves us with a choice. Either God exists and doesn't care about us, or doesn't exist and these diseases occur naturally and randomly. Neither option sounds good for a loving/personal God to me.
Thank you for your time.
DWWJ
I used to think this way, also. I saw the pain and suffering of the innocent, and questioned how this could happen with a loving God. I grew up in a home with loving parents; however, my father came from a broken, St. Louis home of the 1950s. His father left the family when he was 7, on Halloween night. He was a skeptic, to say the least.
Since living away from my parents home, and becoming a parent, I have experience too many patterns ("coincidences", if you will) to deny the notion of God's existence.
I never question why God gave me cancer in my brain. I am thankful for going through the experience, and I have come to the conclusion that I will find out when I go to heaven. I almost feel honored to be trusted by God. Besides, is it God who inflicts these terrible diseases?
I have not come up with any reasons for children to suffer:( I would like an answer to this question as well.
I think I hear God telling me what He thinks and feels. Then, I second guess myself, and wonder if it's just my conscious. And then, I think, "Is my conscious really God?" It's hard for me to decipher between the two.
After hearing the message this weekend, I chose to contact someone I have been very close to in my life, but have recently felt a strain with in our relationship. I felt so much anger toward this person, and chose to tell him about it instead of letting it fester and turn into "violence" toward him. I really believe that God was speaking to me through Pastor Ron's message.
However, now that I've done it, I second guess myself and wonder if it was just me that wanted to display this information to this person. How can I decipher between the two...or are my needs sometimes the same as God's?
Meredith, I'll jump in to take a stab at answering your question since it deals with this past weekend. Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice." Hearing God accurately takes time, it takes practice. I believe over time we will begin to distinguish God's whisperings from others. One principle is key: no "voice" should ever contradict what God has already said in scripture. If it does, reject it. What you did in calling your friend aligns perfectly with Jesus' teachings on reconciliation. Was it God or God using your conscience? I don't know but I believe you did the right thing ... and God must be smiling!
This is in response to "Anonymous" #1. The point you raise is a very reasonable one, the existence of suffering and its compatible with a loving God. It is a debate that goes back many, many years and has been the subject of a number of books. It is also a subject that will be partially addressed during the message on the weekend of February 2-3; so I invite you to attend that weekend.
Here is the short answer; there is a third option - suffering is NOT God's will and is the result of disobedience/sin and humanity's movement away from God's original plan for His creation. I'm not talking about direct sin-consequence, as if some small child in a cancer ward "has brought it on herself." Jesus addressed this twice with his disciples when they tried to assign blame of random tragic acts to the behavior of those who suffered. Jesus said that the world is so broken that the results of sin have crept into everything. Of course there are direct consequences to some degree (if I choose to drink alcohol heavily everyday, my liver will turn to chalk).
So then why would God ALLOW this? The short answer is the importance and integrity of free will to love. God desires to love us and have us love Him in return. Love requires free will. So he allows sin and disobedience, and true free will means allowing the consequences of those choices.
I have a couple of teenagers. I could prevent anyone from ever harming them or keep them from getting into trouble. I simply duct tape them to the closet wall and keep them sedated while feeding them interveniously. However, that is not the loving thing to do. And so I allow them to be exposed to hurt, danger and the consequences of their own choices. Why...ironically because I love and respect them.
I spent two years off and on crutches, had a major surgery, had too many MRIs, CAT scans, bone scans, xrays, and blood work than I can count. I spent my 16th birthday at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital getting a full-leg cast put on. I never had an official diagnosis, but some official reports mentioned Osteosarcoma (bone cancer), along with a resulting fractured tibia and a torn ACL. I feel as though I had cancer and God healed it. No one ever biopsied the tumor in my knee, and I never underwent chemotherapy or radiation. I had suffering, yes, and more pain than I ever imagined possible, but it was the best experience of my life. I came so close to God during my time at St. Jude and so did everyone around me. My whole family changed and I helped lead many people to Christ, including other teenagers at St. Jude. Many young children's families came to know Christ after their children were diagnosed with cancer. With this first-hand knowledge, I feel as though the reason Christ "allows" suffering in children is that it always brings someone closer to Christ. Yes, it would be wonderful if no one had to suffer, but since the reason we are on Earth is to live for God and lead others to him,that is what must happen. And if a child does die...heaven must be much greater than life on earth!
Mea,
What a wonderful story! Thanks for the testimony. Suffering is hard, and we absolutely serve a God that can transform situations from tragic to beautiful.
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