Have You Heard the Whisper?
I’m honored to be able to moderate this group of Elders, your Session, during this season of the life of Canonsburg UP. In particular, our study time this past Monday as we go through Alan Kraft’s The Intimate God; A Practical Guide to Experiencing the God Who Delights in You was truly rich. We had been taking time to practice listening to Jesus during the past month and through the sharing, several key things came out that I thought would be worthwhile sharing with the church and community at large.
First was the fact that being still in order to listen… well, as one elder put it, is a practice. It doesn’t necessarily come naturally – especially when it’s listening to Jesus. Our world and, our minds and even our bodies cry out constantly and it’s difficult to be still and to be in a place where we are able to listen. We even talked about how for some, being physically active can help us listen… but we’re all different, and that doesn’t work for everyone! How amazing is it that God has created us uniquely – and we can marvel at what “works” for some, but may not work for us. So we press on to discover for ourselves how best we can listen.
Another thing that was shared was how much work, how much of an investment of ourselves goes in to truly hearing what another person (or God) is saying. God can be speaking to us, just like our spouse or our child or our friend, but until we choose to engage, until we choose to attend to them and work at understanding, their words can fall short of making an impact on us.
And then… we had some profound sharing about moments where some of our elders’ very lives were changed by a whisper from God that honestly, gave chills to us as we heard them recount their story. It made me wonder, how many others have had a whisper from God… but no avenue to share that profound experience? I’m glad we took the time and I’m especially glad they felt comfortable enough around that table to share. I think we all came away going, “Isn’t God awesome!” and “Maybe… God might be whispering to me too…”
That’s going to feed in to what we’re looking at this Sunday as we explore Psalm 27, and David’s heart-desire to know and be lead by God. Before we get there though, I want to offer up two quick things. Let’s call them invitations.
First – have you had a situation where God has whispered to you? If you have… I invite you to share it. We can give you a platform that you’re comfortable with (written, recorded, live and in-person) – because your experience of God speaking to you an be a catalyst and an encouragement to many other people. Just reach out and we can chat!
Second – the invitation is this… prayer, which is the chorus (below) from MercyMe’s 2002 song, Word of God Speak. I invite you to pray (or sing it as a prayer) to God and open yourself up to the whisper of God to you and over you as you read right now, throughout this day and going forward this week and beyond.
Welcoming You to Grow in Jesus – the One who speaks,
Pastor Don
Word of God speak
Would you pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That you’re in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In your holiness
Word of God speak