Is God looking to have an encounter with you and you’re missing it, or if you’re being really honest, you’re not looking for it and maybe even avoiding it?
What if God sees how I’m living? What if God wants to change something I don’t want to change? What if God wants me to do something I don’t want to do?
I Samuel 3:1-10
v. 1 – Samuel grew up in the Temple, learning from Eli to be a minister
- in those days, the word of the Lord was rare, not many visions – no explanation, but I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest it wasn’t because God disappeared
vv. 4-6 – Samuel doesn’t recognize God’s voice
v. 7 – Samuel did not yet know the Lord, kind of funny when you think about where he spent all of his time – how many of us show up, go through the motions, but do not know the Lord?
v. 8 – “Boy, if you wake me up one more time.” (this is what Eli’s thinking…), realizes it’s God and tells Samuel to say to the Lord, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
When’s the last time your prayers and your day began with that phrase?
“God, I know you have a plan for my day. Jesus, I know you have saved me for a reason. Instead of me sitting here and telling you how my day is going to go and asking you to sanction it and make it easy, how about I listen and you tell me, your servant, how it’s going to go.”
v. 10 – and so begins Samuel’s life as a spokesman for God
Are you listening for God, or are you kind of okay knowing He’s there and keeping him at a distance so He doesn’t change the way you live your life?
Too many of us are living as Christian atheists – we believe in God, but we live as though He doesn’t exist. (Craig Groeschel)
Today, we’re celebrating freedom – maybe the freedom we most need to exercise is the freedom to speak to God, listen to God and follow Him.
In the coming weeks, we’re going to talk more about what an encounter with God looks like, but today we need to answer the question, do we want one? Are we listening?
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