God Speaking

“He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.”

(Psalm 107: 29)

Just recently I was fitted with hearing aids as my family had insisted, I needed them, I agreed with them, but thought of them as another reminder of how old I was becoming and reluctantly, went ahead with the procedure. My daughter told her young son that I would now be able to hear all the stories he wanted to tell me about school and all the exciting things a six-year-old boy did every day. When he saw me for the first time, he ran towards me and said, “Where are they?” I think he was very disappointed that I was not wearing heavy black earphones like a helicopter pilot. I had to explain they were inside my ears so then he decided to put them to the test. His first test was a faint whisper which I had to bend down close to him to hear, next he shouted a question which made my head spin. Normal voice, his mother explained.

Scripture speaks about God himself whispering, but his whisper is so powerful the Psalmist tells us that storms and wild sea are hushed. There is a beautiful story in the first book of Kings where we read about Elijah who had been zealously working for God, but was exhausted and ran away to hide from the king Ahab, and prayed to God to let him die as in his own words,  he had had enough.

“He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die, “I have had enough, Lord” he said…” (1 Kings 19: 4)

God decides to speak to him, himself and the story takes an unusual twist, suddenly there is a mighty wind. God does not speak. Next an earthquake. God does not speak, then a roaring fire. God does not speak.  Then amazingly God speaks to Elijah in a whisper. (Wonderful story to read to get the whole picture)

It is a wonderful example for us to take note. Life might bring all sorts of upheavals in various forms and we can feel that we have had enough like Elijah, but it is often those situations that if we stop and concentrate on listening to God whispering, and shut out all the noise of the world with it’s false accusations, we hear words of comfort and encouragement.

Just as we need to be close to anybody who whispers to us, so we need to listen very carefully to what the Lord is saying to us and the only way to do that is to stay in close contact with him and believe he is powerful to quell any storm threatening us, just with his voice, just as Jesus slowed this power to the disciples.

“…He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.” (Luke 8: 24)

I read a beautiful saying in a study I was reading

Jesus whispers through all God’s word

That is how we can hear God’s whisper. Through reading his word.