Whispers...

I am new at this but was convinced to give it a try this weekend while spending time with our church family at Family Weekend. We all bring our food, kids, campers, tents, chairs, and whatever else we feel we may need and spend the weekend at our District Campgrounds. It's a lot of fun, food and fellowship. My concern was that it would take up too much of my time but some friends convinced me that I could do it without a lot of effort, so here I go.



I don't know if it's that I'm getting older or that I'm consciously spending more time in prayer and the Word this year but I have a volume of thoughts and words pouring out of me... I've started a prayer journal this year and have been amazed at how clearly God speaks to us if we only take the time to listen. I recently shared this vein of thought with our ladies' prayer group but wanted to share it here.



A week or so ago in my morning prayer time I felt as though this was the word He was speaking to me... "whisper". I even looked in the concordance of my Bible to see if there were scriptures with this word but didn't really find a lot. Running out of time, I finished up prayer time and headed to work. When I opened my email there was an email with the subject "Whisper". Of course I was totally intrigued. I opened it up to read it… it spoke of all the ways God uses to speak to us and not to discount the small things… one line that really stuck out to me was this… don’t miss out on your blessing (or from hearing his voice) just because it isn’t packaged the way you expected! How true! We think we have God figured out and want to tell Him how to fix our situation or how to bless us and on and on… He always has our best interests at heart. We need to learn to pray the blessing or the “fix” He has for us. He does a much better job and dreams bigger for us than we will ever dream for ourselves!



Needless to say… I was feeling like I was walking in the 3rd heaven! God has given me a “whisper” today! I left work to go get in the pick up line at my boy’s school. I intentionally go about 30 minutes early so I can practice this “whisper” process… getting still, getting quiet, no sound… just me, Him, His Word… I was a day behind on my One Year Bible reading so I finished the current day while sitting there. I got to the New Testament passage for that day and there it was… my other whisper… Col 4:5 “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.” (Forgot to mention that this was the other verse He had led me to that morning--specifically about "redeeming the time").



I just sat in awe of the presence of the Lord. The very fact that the Maker of the Universe… Creator of everything… would take the time to give me a couple of “whispers”… I started thinking about whispers… they are usually used in a bad context… even in the Word it tells of backbiters, whisperers… but when you whisper something, you are sharing a secret. You only trust your secrets with those you trust completely. If we want to know His secrets… hear His whispers… we must first have a secret place where we can steal away with Him and hear what He wants to whisper into our spirit.



I Kings 19:12 “And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”

A still small voice… there it is… right there in the Word… the whisper. I do want to hear His voice… even if it is the slightest whisper. I know there are so many things in this life that will always try to stifle His whispers. Just help me discipline myself to steal away with Him… away from the noise… I want to align myself to hear—laying aside those things that steal my time and crowd out that still small voice.

One more thing... the following day I had just dropped the boys off for school and decided to turn up the radio. There it was... a song I had never heard before on a cd that had been given to me... the song was called "A Whisper Is Enough". Again... He gave me another whisper... I have to share the words...

"Lord, you are my shepherd and the keeper of my heart. You guide my steps when I can't find my way. And yet I know for you to truly lead I must live in such a way that when you call to me...

a whisper is enough... when I'm close enough to hear... when my one desire is just to have you near. You still the storms around me with gentle words of love. I want to live so that a whisper is enough.

Is it any wonder that it's hard to know your voice when so consumed by the cares of this world? But in an age that competes with everything you say, please give me ears to hear above the noise it makes..."