I Want to Hear His Voice

 I'm thinking about voices today. (Doesn't mean I'm hearing them). Everyone's voice is unique to them. That's why a mother will recognize their child calling, "mommy", even when among other moms and children. I recognize a friend's voice on the phone, because I have been with that person and I know what they sound like. Even when I read a letter or note from someone I know, I'm hearing them saying the words.

After I had left home and started college, my parents would call about once a week. I'd be summoned from my room to walk down the hall to take the call from the only phone on the whole dorm floor. The phone's receiver was usually dangling mid air on the curly cord, that was attached to its box on the wall, waiting for me to pick it up. If I stretched the cord far enough into the lounge around the corner, which was hopefully unoccupied, I'd have some degree of privacy. Somewhere in the beginning of our conversation or near the end my mother would say something like, "It's good to hear your voice." 

Today, I'm finding it easier to text a message to family or friends than to dial their phone number. But my mother's desire to hear my kid's voices can only go so long before I reach out and make the call. As I'm reflecting on this subject, I wonder how much we are losing by not hearing each other's voices more often. Texts or messages can't relay tone or gestures or body language. We've likely all experienced an assumption or misunderstanding because we read a voice rather than heard the voice.

Those of us in relationship with the triune God are seeking to know his voice better. Few hear it with our ears. So, if we can't actually hear his voice audibly, how do we recognize it? The scriptures are full of examples of what his voice sounds like: thunder, rushing water, a trumpet... It can be loud, powerful, still, small; creation speaks without a sound or word. When God compares his voice to that of the Bridegroom, his tone is tenderness. When compared to a Shepherd, it conveys care and protection. A Warrior's voice is victorious. The Holy Spirit prayers for us with unuttered groanings. When his voice spoke to Paul during a time when Paul's life was in danger, it brought comfort and encouragement. His voice speaks direction, whether to turn to the right or the left. His voice comforts, invites to come, speaks justice and judgment. The voice of the King is majestic.

In John 10, Jesus identifies himself as the good Shepherd. He says that the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them, and they follow him because they know his voice. How wonderful that he speaks to us, that we can know his voice. He's not a distant , silent God, but wants to communicate with us. I want to get better at listening. I talk to him, a lot. But I want to hear him more often and more clearly. 

Here's my heart Lord, 
Here's my heart, Lord,

Here's my heart, Lord.
Speak what is true.

Taken from Casting Crowns

Lessons from the Book of Job

The last few years I've read through the Bible in a year by listening to the Daily Audio Bible app. This year I decided to use the app and read through the Bible in chronological order. So far I've read the first 11 chapters of Genesis and now we're in the book of Job. The Hardin family produces the app. Brian reads the daily scriptures in the first plan, while Jill, his wife, and their daughter China alternate reading the chronological portions. They all give thoughts at the end of the reading for us to reflect on.

The first reading plan has portions of the OT and NT and Psalms and Proverbs every day. I'm finding the chronological plan allows more concentration on just one book at a time. I also like the different voices, female voice perspectives. 

I've never "enjoyed" the book of Job. It just seemed a repetition of Job's mourning and his friends' wrong advice. And could I take any good or truth out of his friends' advice since they didn't have their theology right?

This time around, I've been seeing more of the depth of Job's suffering and his response to it. I also listen to The Bible Recap app where Tara Leigh Cobble gives a brief summary of what the chronological reading of the day meant to her. Tara has brought out some of the verses in Job's discourses that show how deep his trust is in God. And encourages us to have patience with Job. Expressing grief doesn't mean you aren't trusting God.

In Job 14:5 he says, ..."man's days are numbered..."  God is sovereign over my life span. We can't exceed God's limits. That should be a comforting promise. Then she shared a couple of questions that  really challenge me. Where do I feel offended that he's in charge? Where do I want to be the God of my own life? Where do I feel he's infringing on my rights with his sovereignty? 

I often pray Psalms 139:23-24. Seach me, oh God, and know my heart...and see if there be any offensive way in me. I've understood that as any way I'm offensive to God, but now I add anyway God has become offensive to me. I want to be led in the way everlasting where my heart is humbly acknowledging his sovereignty and submitted to his leading. 

Job's statement in 19:25 is familiar. "I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand on the earth...in my flesh I will see God...How my heart yearns within me!" This past Christmas advent brought a new longing in me for Jesus' second return. Even after not hearing a word from the Lord for 400 years, God's people still harbored an expectation that the Messiah would come. They were longing for a political deliverer, which we know now was not Jesus' mission. It was so much better that what they expected. Jesus' second coming will be better than what we can imagine also. Maybe I haven't lived in a longing for that because my life is comfortable right now. Maybe we associate his second coming with only judgment. But it will be Christ returning for his Bride. Like Job, I pray my heart yearns within me to see my Redeemer and Bridegroom.