Hearing His Voice #361

No matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 1:20, NIV

If a survey of Christians asked, (1) “Do you have a strong desire to hear God’s voice?” and (2) “How much time and effort do you spend listening to Him?” the majority would probably answer “yes” to the first and “not much” to the second. Why? Because if we’re really honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that there are certain things we want to hear from God, and we have significant fears that He won’t say them. In other words, we want to hear “yes” but suspect we’ll hear “no.” We listen with negative expectations. And few people want to invest much time and energy in that.

God gives us full permission to listen for His “yes.” That doesn’t mean He endorses everything we desire or promises to fulfill every whim. But He is kindly predisposed toward us and is far more willing to give than we think He is. We tend to assume “no” as His default answer with an occasional “yes” thrown in, but it’s really the other way around. We don’t have to listen pessimistically.

God fulfills His promises in and through Jesus, and because of our life in Him, we receive all the answers to those promises by hearing them and adding our own “amen.” What could possibly be discouraging about that? As Paul writes in another letter, “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32). God has given us no reason to fear His voice. He has already said yes to our biggest questions. The lesser yeses are even easier for Him.

That means we never need to listen pessimistically and can invest our time in hearing Him without fear of wasting it. He rewards those who seek Him with faith and high expectations.

Lord, I will not shy away from Your voice; Your perfect love overcomes all my fear. I run toward Your “yes” with an “amen” in my heart. Fulfill Your promise in me.