Hearing His Voice #352

The voice of the LORD echoes above the sea. The God of glory thunders. The LORD thunders over the mighty sea. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic. . . . In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!”

Psalm 29:3-4, 9

The more we grow accustomed to God’s voice, the louder it sounds. What used to be a faint whisper—and dare we even follow such a subtle and tenuous word?—is now a lightning bolt in our souls. “The voice of God,” said Ignatius of Loyola, “having once penetrated the heart, becomes strong as the tempest and loud as the thunder.” Our sensitivities have increased, even though we think we’re still as hard of hearing as ever. How could we not heed what we’re hearing? It’s God. We recognize the sound.

We may not recognize His voice infallibly, and we certainly have questions sometimes about whether we’re hearing correctly or not. But when we know it’s God, we can hardly escape the implications. We simply have to respond or else rebel in disobedience. The more we learn to recognize His words, the less middle ground we find in our relationship with Him. Something in us compels us to align ourselves with His perspective. We sense the connection with His Spirit and cannot ignore it.

Not that we would ignore it anyway. Sometimes He asks hard things of us, but that’s much better than not hearing Him at all. Other people may be satisfied with a casual or distant relationship with God, but we asked at the beginning to know Him at all costs. When a heart loves the Lord deeply, it can’t be content with long silences or unexplained gaps. We have to pursue Him until His voice resonates within us again. That’s what we were designed for. And in His temple—even the temple we have become—we shout, “Glory!”

Lord, it often seems that I’ve made no progress at all. Yet when I recognize Your whispers within me, they sound more compelling than ever. Echo them loudly and clearly. Let me not escape them. Deep in my spirit, turn up the volume of Your words.