A lot of us find it hard in life to hear from God. We may not even believe there is a God, or wonder, if there is one, why doesn't he speak to me?
If you've had these thoughts, know you are not alone. When we are surrounded by the busyness of life, our worries, our stress, that party I need to plan for, that gift for my mother-in-law I need to buy, it can get so crowded and noisey in our heads and in our lives that we struggle to even sit and process our own thoughts and feelings.
So if there is a God, how can I hear from him? How can I know what he is trying to say and telling me what to do? Let's go through and breakdown how to make this easier for all of us, regardless of whether or not we already have a relationship with him.
Firstly, we can understand that God is the Creator of the earth. Simply looking around at nature and the life it holds allows us to open our minds and start seeing the nature and characteristics of this God. He creates beauty, he makes things work together in tandum, and he ensures everything is cared for and looked after. Trees don't worry about when the next rainfall will come, birds don't worry about whether worms or seeds will run out. Matthew 6:26-27 explains this well: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" Nature can teach us a lot about trust and resting in the knowledge that sometimes, things are too great to be controlled by man. We have to simply place one foot forward and have faith that things will work out.
Secondly, God did not leave us to figure things out all on our own. Man is the only creation that was created in the image of God. Man is also the only creation who has the intellect and access to have connection and awareness of God. God wanted man to be in relationship with Him. God created man to be in relationship with him. It says in Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” " Later throughout the Bible, we also see God repeat a phrase over and over. Want to know what it is?
"I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God."(Jeremiah 24:7). This phrase is repeated 10 times in the Bible using these exact words, and countless other times through stories and different wordings. God wants us to be his people, and he wants to be our God. If God created us to be in relationship with him, then we can rest knowing that if we are seeking to hear from God, we will find him.
When God says he will speak to our hearts, he means it literally. God has given all of mankind a conscious, an underlying moral compass to guide what we know to be right and wrong. We all inherantly know murder is wrong, even without being told it is a law. In a similar way, God guides our conscious to know right from wrong in other situations too. We may choose to ignore it and follow our own agendas in these moments, but that doesn't mean God isn't there underneath it all. We call this feeling discernment.
Romans 2:14-15: "When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong."
Lastly, we can see that throughout this post I've been communicating to you God's words through another method. The Bible. The Bible is a wealth of knowledge on all topics you could think of. See how even here in this short blog post, each point was able to be backed through a scripture, written by people who have lived thousands of years ago. That kind of eternal knowledge and wisdom, still applicable today despite changes in culture, politics, language and the countries, could only come from someone who is eternally wise and sits outside of cultural context. If you doubt the accuracy of the Bible, I would like to point you to this podcast by Goodlife Church in Australia, who goes through the evidence to show why the Bible is an accurate source and why we can trust it.
If you have a heart that is willing to learn more about God, hear Him more and start to understand what he wants for your life, let me encourage you that you are in the right place. God will meet you exactly where you are at on your journey, you do not have to pretend to be anyone but yourself, flaws and all. He sees everything about you and still loves you. He created you after all. If you're ready and open for a relationship with Him, a beautiful, purposeful relationship, simply close your eyes, and say in your heart that you're here. You're ready. And you want to walk the rest of this journey with Him guiding your footsteps.
If this touched your heart today, and you'd like to discuss this further, may I encourage you to send a message so I can answer any questions you may have and help you gain further understanding into how God loves us and guides us everyday.
Emma Jane x
Want to hear more: Listen to The Seeking Truth Podcast: Hearing God's Voice
References: Bible verses taken from the NIV and MSG translations. All rights reserved to the respectful publishers/ authors.
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