Listening to God!
In the book of Exodus chapter 33, verse 9 and 11, the most interesting point that I have noted about Moses’ quiet time with God was the fact that God talked with Moses. From these verses I gathered that when we meet with God, it was more important what He had to say than what we had to say. In fact God already knows what we want to tell Him so we should not be too concerned about making sure He hears us. I want to remind us that God is not mocked. The Bible tells us that He looks at our hearts. He cannot be fooled nor tempted to do anything. Nor is He ignorant. The Bible tells us that God knows of what we need even before we ask Him. Our focus therefore must change from a self-centered relationship to a Christ-centered relationship. We must trust that, even if we keep silent about our needs for once just so that we can spend more time listening to Him, our needs will still be met because of He is who He is - our Father.
There are other opportunities in a day to talk to God. We therefore must allow our quiet time to be exclusively a time to have God talk to us. I challenge the young people that even if they had only 10 minutes for their devotion that they should spend at least 7 minutes to wait on God, to meditate on His word and hear His voice rather than to make any requests whatsoever to Him during that time. God will surely reward our confidence of His love and nature. As I said, you can make your requests to Him at any other time of the day. Someone said that being stuck in the traffic was the best time to pray rather than to complaint. My emphasis therefore shall be on learning how to hear God’s voice which I believe is the most important ingredient in our quiet time. Without our quiet time hearing from God is incomplete.
Why Journal?
I found that in all my previous speaking engagements, there was no need to elaborate very much on the importance of a daily devotion, I did however spend a good part of my time stirring the interest of my listeners and challenging them to a deeper, more meaningful walk with Jesus by making sure that they truly made full and proper use of their quiet time with Him. As briefly mentioned above, I usually end my message by introducing (or reinforcing) to them the practice and purposes of journalising, few are actually applying it to their personal daily devotions. There are two main reasons to this. Either they have not begun to make an effort to listen to God’s voice or they don’t understand the need to journal. Having touched at length on the former let us now consider the purpose for the latter. I can think of 3 simple and basic reasons which I would like to share with you:
An act of good stewardship. We need to be accountable to God for our own spiritual growth. It is good for us to keep short accounts with God. By doing this we are able to monitor our spiritual development as we nurture what God has planted is us. Keeping a journal with Jesus also serves to help us keep tab with our consistency in meeting with God.
As a reminder of what we have heard and learnt. As mentioned above, it is quite unfortunate that we are very forgetful beings. If only we could just remember daily what had happened to us, the commitments we had made and the personal revival that we had experienced at the last youth camp or convention that we had attended, how different we or our world would be today. “A short pencil is better than a long memory,” remembers?!
A means to bless others. Have we been blessed by the journals of great men and women of God? I am quite sure sure many of us have. Some of us ask whether there is a biblical basis for the need of writing down that we’ve seen or heard? I can think of quite a few instances in the Bible where God told His people to write things down and most of the time it was not only for the sake of the writer nor his own generation but more so for the generations that were to follow. In fact when you think about it, isn’t the whole Bible a journal of experiences between God and His people?
*Adapted from “Journaling with Jesus” by Kenneth Chin, 1988
Another very good reason to start a journal would be with this question:
Have You Read Through The Bible Once?
This, of course doesn’t include skipping Leviticus? Or have you even tried reading the Old Testament; besides the book of Genesis, Proverbs? Do you avoid Revelation, Haggai or Habakkuk? While you still have the Bible in your hand (shelf, table, etc.), all is not lost. It could just be the way you approach reading the Bible; which makes it either boring or interesting.
One to remember at all times - it’s okay if you don’t understand certain things first time round e.g. the symbolic meaning of the colourful horses in Revelation or the poetic language of Song of Soloman?!
The D2Y2 team came up with some pointers on how to complete the whole Bible cover to cover in a year - successfully.
• Ye Olde King James version is NOT the thing to start with (unless you’re a medieval english fanatic!). Try the Living Bible, Good News or the New Century Version Bible (huh?).
• Reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in its order could be difficult - especially when you reach Leviticus or Numbers. Perhaps reading the books at random would be easier. Ruth, Luke or Esther are good books for starters - they’re easy, short and interesting. (Of course, reading the books of the Bible at random may not give you the total overview but it does give you the opportunity to at least read through the Bible one time round. The next time round you could start from Genesis right through Revelation in a systematic style.)?
• Try role-playing the parts; by changing your tone of voice, pace, expression etc. This will liven up your Bible reading programs . If your neighbour calls to find out if you’re “okay”, just invite him/her to read with you!?
• Sitting upright might be helpful instead of a horizontal position.
• If you’re not much of a reader, we’d encourage you to take small chunks at a time to read; e.g. a chapter at a time (it may seem like forever, but give it a try!)
• Make notes (if you’re REALLY bored and your eyes are closing) e.g. can anyone remember the different plagues during Moses’ time? IN ITS ORDER?! So make notes: blood, flies, locusts, frogs, death, etc. (Or draw little pictures!)?
• Get a GIANT PRINTED BIBLE! It would really magnify your reading. Honestly, it really helps. (Tried and tested by our editor!)?
• If all else fails, go get a Children’s Picture Bible - to whet your appetite - then you should graduate to a higher level where it’s ALL words! |
