(Part 11–Your Relationship with God)
It takes time to listen to God. Our busy activities should come to a stop before we can hear God’s voice.
We should also create a habit of listening to God each day. This we do by reading the Bible prayerfully. Many Christians read a Psalm or a Proverb each day and are satisfied with it. If you are satisfied with it, then it is like being satisfied by eating a few vitamin tablets a day or a glass of milk. This is not enough. You need to eat solid food.
Read the Bible prayerfully each day. Cover the entire Bible over a reasonable period of time. Choose a reading plan that suits you. Then you are storing up within your heart God’s wisdom. When the need comes, God will apply that wisdom to your particular situation in life. That helps to arrive at practical solutions and answers in your daily living.
Many Christians make the mistake of running ahead of God. They try to think out solutions in their own wisdom or by listening to the advice of friends and relatives. Nothing of this is wrong. But always seek the counsel of the Lord first. God should never be your last resort. Instead you should establish such a relationship with Him that you will run to Him first, seeking His help and guidance.
Most often God speaks to you through the Bible itself. Sometimes He speaks to you through senior Christian leaders who love the Lord and are walking in purity (sometimes if those people who are giving you advice are not walking in purity, they will give you advice that is not godly). Sometimes God speaks to us through circumstances (favourable circumstances does not always mean that it is God’s will. For example, Jonah while fleeing from the Lord found a ship ready to sail). At other times God impresses upon our hearts very distinctly His thoughts. You can almost call that an audible whisper. The peace of God will also accompany all the ways through which God speaks.
Learn to wait for God’s time and wait till you hear from Him. This is not at all easy. For we naturally want to do something. We love to take action. But God is not in a hurry. He is always seen seated on His throne. Our role is to quieten our disturbed hearts in His presence. The Bible calls us to “Be still” before God. It is when we are still before Him that we are given grace to hear what God has to say.