WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME you heard from God? Think about it.

Has God’s still, small voice been drowned out by the hum of too much noise from work,family, church and friends?

In the bible the adolescent boy named Samuel was lying in the temple.It was still night because ” the lamp of God had not yet gone out ” (the lamp would not have been allowed to go out before morning).

Samuel was probably lonely, having been separated from his family and dedicated his mother Hannah to work for the old, blind priest Eli in the temple.

It seems to have been a discouraging time to work there:” The word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.”

But Samuel drowsed on his pallet, the sound of his name cut through the flickering dimness. ” Samuel!”

Naturally Samuel thought Eli had called.

“Here I am, ” replied the boy.

Again, “Samuel listened keenly, now the summons didn’t come from Eli.

God himself called Samuel that evening, and Eli taught the boy the right response:

” Speak, for your servant is listening.”

What made Samuel so ready to hear God’s voice? For one thing, he was faithful and obedient servant.

He was ready to respond to His master, and his willingness made him ready to respond to God as well.

He was being faithful in the small things of his everyday life and was therefore entrusted with a great thing, to be  a prophet of God and to restore the priesthood’s honor.

Samuel was also in the right place to listen.

Are You?  

His posture invited God to speak to him: faithful,obedient,humble,waiting,receptive.

His willingness to respond became instrumental in restoring holiness to the land:

” {God} revealed himself to Samuel through His word. And Samuel’s word came to all Israel.”

If you want to hear God speak, do what you can to be ready.

Be prepared when you’re in a place of outward silence and sanctuary: as you lay awake in the early hours of the morning, while you wait in your car for your children to get out of school, when you walk the dog in the evening.

Seek an inner silence and sanctuary also.

Let go of mental noise and emotional confusion. Take deep breaths in and out until your heart and respiration rate slow.

Humbly and receptively invite God to speak to you, and wait with faithful and obedient readiness.

When God calls your name, respond. ” Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

Read: 1 Samuel  3:10

Related Readings: Psalm 84:1-2; 86:1-17, Matthew 5:8, John 10:1-6

“Yes, Mom, i hear you! I’ll get my homework down and unload the dishwasher before i watch TV.”

Brent looked his mom straight in the eyes and repeated her instructions.

Marlene had to work the third shift this week,and she wouldn’t be around when Brent got home from school.

Later, when she inspected her son’s work, she realized he hadn’t followed all of her directions.

When she confronted him, Brent rolled his eyes and said, “But, Mom, I didn’t think you meant all of it!” Walking away in disgust, she muttered, “Where did i go wrong?”

Marlene sounds a little like Samuel in the bible when he expressed God’s grief over Saul’s misbehavior: “I am grieved that i have made Saul king.”

Samuel, God’s messenger on earth, had given Saul clear instructions: Wipe out all of the Amalekites and take no plunder. No exceptions.

But Saul’s actions revealed his self-willed heart:

“But, lord, i didn’t think you meant all of them!” God’s commands didn’t fit Saul’s plans, so he tweaked them to fit his convenience.

We’re all a little like Saul.

We all fall into the “but, Lord” trap.

I know your grace is sufficient, but, Lord, I think I’ll take the easy way out.

But, Lord, why can’t i tell five of my best friends about what happened?

But, Lord, surely flirting isn’t cheating.

But, Lord, this chat room helps me escape my boring life.

But, Lord, overeating isn’t hurting anyone else, is it? 

We dig ourselves in deeper when, instead of squelching temptation, we turn toward it.

The turn starts when, like Saul, we respond to God’s promptings within us with “But, Lord….” and “[reject] the word of the Lord.”

The more frequently we make that turn, the more we fool ourselves that we are innocent.

Our daily lives present us with ample opportunity to choose God’s leading or to reject it.

Saul chose to disobey, and it cost him the kingdom.

Jesus chose to obey, and he gained the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

The only “but” believers should utter is the one Christ taught us to pray, “Not as i will, but as you will”

Starting over.

Its the second chance we didn’t think we’d have. It’s a wave of relief that washes over our past mistakes. It is a gift from God we don’t deserve.

In the Bible,book of Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah looks back at the destruction of Jerusalem.

God promised that his people would face punishment for their sinful choices, and he was true to his word.

Their city had been ravaged, and they were now living in exile.

The temple was completely destroyed.

In the midst of Jeremiah’s lament, however, he remembers the mercy of God.

Were it not for God’s mercy, every one of God’s people would have perished.

The judgement on them was painful, but God would not leave them ruined.

Eventually, after they acknowledged their disobedience and confessed their sin, God would forgive and restore them.

He would allow them to start over once more.

And he does the same for us.

Maybe you have experienced the discipline of God in your own life.

You have suffered painful consequences for sinful choices you have made.

Perhaps you feel that God has left you there.

If so, remember that although God is just, he is also full of mercy.

His compassions never fail, He promises to forgive us when we come to him and confess what we have done or not done.

No matter how you have offended God, you can have hope because of his great mercy.

You can always have a fresh start with him because his compassions are “new every morning”.

Take some time to thank God for the specific ways he has acted mercifully toward you.

Thank him for forgiving your sin.

Express gratitude to him for actively restoring you.

You may even want to sing or pray the words to the hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”

“Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with then thousand beside!

Read: Lamentations 3:21-51

IMAGINE THE SCENE:    (Read: Genesis 1:27-31)

Holding her hair back with one hand, the woman kneels and lean forward to drink from the clear pool of water.

As her cupped hand reaches for the clear liquid, she draws back,

startled.

Who is th long-haired stranger staring back at her?

Perhaps even since the time Adam and Eve first caught sight of her reflection in the Garden of Eden,women and men have dealt with the question of image.

Polls consistently reveals that the majority  of us are dissatisfied with our appearance. 

Confronted with a barrage of airbrushed photos of supermodels and celebrities adorning magazine covers,

the average women thinks she is too short,

too fat,

too unattractive,

too imperfect.

How can we ever measure up with the medias standards of perfection?

The first chapter of the Bible supplies the answer.

We were created in the image of one paradigm of perfection: Our Creator.

Our height, weight and skin color may indicate our human origins,but our soul and spirit reflect our Sovereign God.

When a child is born, it’s not unusual for someone to claim she’s the very “image” of a relative.

But what does it mean to be created in the image of our heavenly Father? an image is a likeness of resemblance-a reflection as seen in the mirror.

Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ is the ” image of the invisible God” ( Colossians 1:15).

As we grow in faith, we who believe are gradually ” being transformed into [Christ's] likeness” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

When we become like Jesus, we begin to look more and more like our heavenly Father.

God created us to convey the distinctive imprint of His divine nature to a world often blinded to his existence.

Even our differences reflect the one who delighted in creating a world of dazzling diversity:

peculiar penguins and majestic eagles;

towering redwoods and dwarf pines;

blondes,brunettes and redheads…

every person created with the individual imprint of the Creator’s hand to bear His image.

So the next time you pass by a mirror, pause a moment to gaze in wonder at the designer original whom God loves so dearly– YOU!!!

Reflections:

1. How do you see God’s image reflected in the lives of others you admire?

2. What factors from the past have damaged your sense of self-worth?

3. Think of three ways in which you can beautifully reflect the characteristics of your creator by imitating Christ.

Related Readings:

Psalm 139:14

2 Corinthians 3:18

Colossians 1:15

Revelation 7:9

” A handful of the earth to make God’s image!” -Elizabeth Barrett Browning-

A BRITISH PUBLICATION once offered a prize for the best definition of a friend.

Among the thousands of answers mailed in, the top five were:

5) “One who multiplies joys, divides grief, and whose honesty is inviolable.”

4) “One who understands our silence.”

3) “A volume of Sympathy bound in cloth.”

2) “A watch that beats true for all time and never runs down.”

The winning definition simply read:

1) “A friend is the one who comes in when the world has gone out.”

In the bible in Samuel 20:1-42, David and Jonathan fit these definitions of a true friend.

Jonathan had become “one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself,” and the two had made a covenant of friendship (Samuel 18:1-3).

When Samuel anointed David to succeed Jonathan’s father as a king.

Saul erupted in unbridled anger and forced David from the land.

But Jonathan swore loyalty to God’s chosen heir to the throne.

David and Jonathan’s deep friendship was based not on family ties or warm,fuzzy feelings;

they were bound by dedication to God and steadfast commitment to one another.

Rather than being jealous of David for usurping his potential place as king,

Jonathan accepted God’s plan to make David king,

sacrificially stepping down and supporting his friend.

And David reciprocated by remaining loyal to Jonathan’ family.

Even after Jonathan death.

David kept his vow of loyalty to his dear friend.

He made sure that Jonathan and Saul were buried with royal honors.

He invited Jonathan’s disabled son Mephibosheth, into his home and treated him like a prince.

In our culture,

it seems more common to hear of women who have close friendships than men who do so,

so were surprised that one of the most beautiful portraits of friendship in scripture is the bond between these two warriors,

who we might be inclined to think of as unemotional and detached.

But we can model David and Jonathan’s friendship.

When our friendships are based on our common love for God and our desire for God’s best for each other,

then our friendship can be as tough and true and deep as the one between David and Jonathan.
“The impulse of love that leads us to the doorway of a friend is the voice of God within and we need not be afraid to follow it.”