The Voice of God

In church land, we talk a lot about God's call in our lives, listening for God's guidance, waiting for God to speak to us. There are many different ways that we talk about directly, or just sort of indirectly reference the voice of God speaking in our lives.

Last night at our college age bible study we talked about the lack of silence in our lives. We fill every waking moment of our lives with something. Maybe it's music, maybe it's email or surfing the web, maybe it's working, maybe it's commuting, maybe it's spending time with family, maybe it's some combination of all those things. But we pack our lives so full of stuff, and noise, and activities. One of the questions we pondered last night was whether we fill our lives with all that stuff and noise because we're afraid of what God might say to us.

But the conversation left me wondering how many of us avoid the silence, not because we are afraid of what God might say, but because we are afraid that God won't say anything at all. Maybe we're afraid that we'll just be left in the silence. Maybe we're afraid that God isn't paying attention to us or has forgotten about us, or worst of all, that we just aren't that important to God. So we worry that if we make space and time for silence, we will simply be left alone in the silence wrestling with all those questions.

It can be hard to tell if God is actually the one speaking in your life. Sometimes we convince ourselves it's just our own thoughts. Sometimes we think our friends are just particularly insightful. Yet many people regularly talk about experiences where they have felt God speaking to them in one way or another. So how do we know when it's God who is speaking to us?

Have you ever felt like God was speaking to you or prompting you to do something? If so what did the voice of God sound like? Maybe it wasn't an audible voice, maybe it was just a feeling inside you, what did it feel like? Was it a comforting thing? an uncomfortable thing? Was it exciting? Scary? Confusing? No answer is right or wrong. God talks to all of us in unique and individual ways. But sometimes hearing how God has spoken in other people's lives can help us recognize the voice of God in our own lives. Please use the comment space to share your experience of God speaking to you.