hinderances to hearing god

Today we looked at some of the things that hinder our 'hearing' God. One of the points really resonated with me. Often have wrong expectations and misunderstandings about how God works and when He speaks. There are times when God speaks through His silence.

I remember when we first moved to Germany. One of the key challenges for most Americans living there was the different road and driving mindset. Among many of the differences is the dependancy on intermittent reminders. When a German tells you take road A and turn right at road B, they mean exactly that. Americans feel a need to be reminded many times along the way that they are still on road A and heading in the direction of road B. The German will simply stay on A until they reach B. I cannot tell you the number of times I turned back because I thought surely I missed B or turned too soon onto another road thinking I must have somehow gotten off of A accidently.

I think we do that a lot with God. He provides clear direction but we become impatient if we don't see all of intermediate signs that we think we should see or if the road appears a little different than we expected we doubt the original direction, etc..

Very often we simply need to stay faithful to the original instructions and stop asking for constant signs along the way. This tends to be unbelief.

Another thing about silence is that silence serves as a great mirror. It is in silence that we often find the opportunity (or better the need) to do some introspection. It is a time to search ourselves. Perhaps rather than letting God know we are frustrated because He isn't speaking as we expect, we should take time to look at ourselves to ask why. Is there sin? Is He teaching us patience? Etc..

And then there is the best reason of all. We have Scripture. It is not right to expect that God's normal way of communicating His will or direction is through spontaneous revelation. It is more the result of a life transformed by on-going study and meditation on His written Word. Many times God is silent because the communication has already been documented in the written Word and He is looking to us to be diligent and trustworthy in that.



Cartoon by Jon Birch.

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