THE DEVOTION OF HEARING - My Utmost For His Highest
"Speak; for Thy servant heareth." 1 Samuel 3:10
Because I have listened definitely to one thing from God, it does
not follow that I will listen to everything He says.
The way in which I show God that I neither love nor respect Him is
by the obtuseness of my heart and mind towards what He says. If I
love my friend, I intuitively detect what he wants, and Jesus says,
"Ye are My friends."
Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord's this week? If I had
realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not consciously
have disobeyed it; but most of us show such disrespect to God that
we do not even hear what He says, He might never have spoken.
The destiny of my spiritual life is such identification with Jesus
Christ that I always hear God, and I know that God always hears me
(John 11:41).
If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God, by the devotion of
hearing all the time. A lily, or a tree, or a servant of God, may
convey God's message to me. What hinders me from hearing is that I
am taken up with other things.
It is not that I will not hear God, but I am not devoted in the
right place. I am devoted to things, to service, to convictions,
and God may say what He likes but I do not hear Him.
The child attitude is always, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant
heareth." If I have not cultivated this devotion of hearing, I can
only hear God's voice at certain times; at other times I am taken
up with things - things which I say I must do, and I become deaf to
Him, I am not living the life of a child. Have I heard God's voice
to-day?
--Oswald Chambers
