3 Oct 2014 - don't be all talk

Chorazin, probably

Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you?
I put my hand over my mouth.

It's time to stop talking and start listening. 

It is true that God does want us to talk to him. He wants us to pour out our hearts before him (cf. Psa. 62:8). He wants us to make our requests known to him by prayer and supplication (cf. Phi. 4:6).

And yet the posture of talking is not as appropriate before the LORD of all the earth as is that of listening. He has already probed us and knows us, when we sit and when we stand. He already understands our thoughts, our journeys, and our ways.

Acknowledging this we are able to let God be God while realizing that we are not. There is a little bit of self-elevation in every act of speaking. We determine something for ourselves, that things should be a certain way. It isn't that there should be no speaking. Job might be getting carried away here.

Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again;
though twice, I will do so no more.

It is just that listening must come first. Listening to God is synonymous with surrender. Speaking to him should arise from this place of stillness where we truly know and experience that he is the LORD.

If this post is written with the priority on my speaking and not on my listening it will not be anointed. It will not have power. Readers will forget it within hours. But if I truly listen then I allow the word of God to have it's full power (cf. 1 The. 2:13) and not devolve into my own words. It remains living, active, and sharp (cf. Heb. 4:12).

When listening is first our supplications and prayers have true power. We affirm the will of God rather than exulting our own will.

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures (cf. Jam. 4:3).

So let's not be like Tyre and Sidon or Chorazin and Bethsaida. The LORD does mighty deeds before us. He seeks us out. He takes the initiative. We don't have to chase him. He speaks to us through his Church, through the people anointed with his Spirit.

Whoever listens to you listens to me.
Whoever rejects you rejects me. 
And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

Let us not reject him because we're too busy speaking to hear him.  Instead, let us pray: "Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way."

I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; 
wonderful are your works.