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Have You Heard Your Word From God?

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Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” Genesis 15:4 NIV

I imagine you’ve probably experienced the dull ache of a longing unfulfilled. Life disappoints all of us at some point or another. Some things just hurt worse than others.

Scripture describes the result of those unfulfilled longings in Proverbs 13:12.

 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

God spoke our opening Scripture to Abraham at a time when his heart ached over a hope that burned within him but hadn’t been realized. He had longed for an heir, and he was starting to have a few doubts about God’ plan for him.

Perhaps you’re familiar with Abraham’s story. The God of glory had appeared to him years before and made a request.

 “Leave your country and your people,” God said, “and go to the land I will show you.” So he left . . . Acts 7:3-4

I wonder how many of us would have been willing to give up everything to follow a God no one else believed in or served. Abraham remained completely alone in his allegiance, and yet he left the life he knew to follow the God he had met.

God must have made quite an impression on him.

As is always the case, God’s command to Abraham came with the promise of blessing.

 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Genesis 12:2-3

Not a bad promise! Only Abraham couldn’t quite figure out how it was going to happen. How would he become a great nation when he had no heir? He was already an old man.

In Genesis 15 he begins to voice his concerns to his God. Notice the doubt rising, his heart ailing over having his hope for an heir long deferred.

But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Genesis 15:2-3

Don’t you love the freedom he feels to get honest with God? God loves it too. And in a tender moment, He whispers hope into Abraham’s aching heart.

 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Genesis 15:4-5

Can you imagine it? God tells Abraham, “I want to show you something.” Then he challenges him to count the stars and tells him, “That’s how many offspring I’m giving you. And it won’t be coming through your servant. Your heir will be your own flesh and blood.”

God’s plans for us generally surpass what we can dream up. The problem is, many of us don’t let Him whisper His dreams into our hearts. We set our hearts on our own plans, our own dreams, and expect God to meet them. Then our deferred hope shatters our hearts.

Beloved, let me remind you of a biblical truth on which you and I need to establish our faith.

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. Romans 10:17

The most significant part of Abraham’s story can be summed up from Genesis 15:4.

Then the word of the Lord came to him: . . .

At every turning point in Abraham’s journey, God spoke. And each time, Abraham chose to believe Him.

I wonder if some of us are frustrated because we’re trying to believe God for things He hasn’t spoken over our lives. We’re trying to claim promises because we believe that’s what God should do for us, but we haven’t bothered to ask Him if it’s in His plan.

Beloved, faith comes from hearing. We cannot fully express faith to follow Jesus without seeking Him to hear His Word for our lives.

I encourage you to ask Him, dear one. Perhaps, like Abraham, you’ll receive the word you longed for. If so, hold onto His promise with both hands until you see it come to pass.

Or perhaps you’ll discover that the hope you’ve held onto isn’t part of His plan for your life. If so, He wants to minister to your wounded heart and turn your attention to the blessing He has set aside for you.

In case you’re wondering, you won’t have to worry if you’ll like the blessing. It will be a perfect fit for you because it’s what you were made for. And your soul will sing with elation that far surpasses what would have come from what you once hoped for.

You may even discover what Abraham did about the God you serve.

“. . . I am . . . your very great reward.” Genesis 15:1

Encountering Jesus

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“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

On Sunday we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection. A throng of people filled our sanctuary, many dressed in pristine Easter finery. Ushers scurried to find seats, busily lining folding chairs along the walls and aisles to accommodate the overflow. It was no ordinary Sunday.

How it must have delighted God’s heart to see the crowds uniting in praise of His Son. Voices rose together in worship, a beautiful melody lifting before the throne of the King. I felt my heart swell with love and gratitude in response to what my Savior chose to suffer for me. My hands rose heavenward involuntarily.

It was a good day.

Today, sadness pricks at the edges of my heart.

You see, I wonder how many of the faithful Easter attendees flooding our churches really know the Savior they came to worship. How many went out of duty for a distant God they hoped to appease by their annual presence on resurrection day? How many others rifle into church each week from that same sense of duty, with no thought of encountering the Living God?

Please hear my heart, dear one. I don’t say this in judgment. I say it because for 26 years I was one of them. I say it because I know the emptiness of being a church attendee who had no fellowship with Jesus. I say it because I want desperately for everyone to experience the transforming power of His unfailing love.

Beloved, do you know Him?

I remember the day I finally met Him.

I wasn’t looking for it when it happened. I was simply trying to finish my homework and get my blanks filled in before our home group met the next time for Bible study.

But my relentless, loving God had plans for this lost and wandering sheep. Four words stared back at me from the page in my workbook, seeking my response: Do you love Jesus?

The question was an easy one, and I lifted my hand to answer “yes” without even thinking. I knew the right answer.

But my hand began to tremble as a fresh revelation dawned. Conviction fell over me as the Spirit of Truth invaded my thoughts and allowed me to see what He saw.

I didn’t love Him.

I had thought I did. I’m sure I’d said it a hundred times in my twenty-six years. After all, I’d grown up in church. And I wasn’t just an Easter worshiper; I worshiped every week. I could quote Scripture and tell you all about Jesus’ life.

But knowing stuff about Jesus isn’t the same as knowing Him.

And that day, the Spirit lifted the veil so I could see the truth about myself. I realized I had been a pretender, living a lie. I couldn’t love Jesus because I didn’t even know Him. But I realized something else that day that was even more important: I wanted to. And so, undone by the Holy Spirit in my living room, I confessed my sin, exited the kingdom of darkness, and gave my life to Jesus.

I have never been the same.

Have you had your encounter with Jesus, dear one? Does your Christianity bear the marks of religious chains, or a transforming work of grace?

If you’re not certain, ask the Lord of Glory to reveal Himself to you. He will never withhold Himself from a seeking heart. In fact, He’s the One stirring you to seek Him. And when you do, He promises,

“I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity.” Jeremiah 29:14

He will lift the veil for you to see, piercing darkness with glory and disclosing your truth. And then, you have a choice to make. Will you step into the light and head toward Jesus? Or do you prefer the comfortable familiarity of the darkness?

Choose life, beloved. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and you will never see heaven without Him (John 14:6). To spend eternity with Him there, you must know and trust Him here.

He beckons you to life with the same invitation He gave the Twelve, “Follow Me.”

Will you follow?

 “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

The Grace of Listening

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 “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

James 1:19-20

Most of us get this one wrong. We habitually rattle off whatever comes to mind and often don’t bother to listen. We already know we’re right; we just need to convince the other guy. Of course, the other guy is usually thinking the same thing.

Perhaps you recognize this scenario.

You’re having a discussion or a disagreement, and you’ve paused long enough to give your opponent a moment to respond to your enlightening wisdom. He’s now speaking, but you’re not listening. You’re far too busy contemplating your next argument. Before he’s able to put the period on his sentence, you let loose again, hoping to seal the deal.

Discussions like that usually don’t resolve anything. You end up right where you began. Except now the stubborn refusal to agree has left both sides fuming.

Have you ever been caught in that destructive cycle? I have. It’s one of the pitfalls of having a perfectionist personality. Those of us chained to that particular stronghold can be driven by a compulsive need to prove ourselves right. So we try.

Unfortunately, our behavior has consequences. Galatians 6:7 teaches,

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

Apparently, so does a woman. On a number of occasions when I’ve tried to talk to my sons about something they don’t really agree with, I’ve realized they’re not tuning in. Instead of listening, they’re working on their own arguments. They’ve already made up their minds. Their retort to my advice offers the proof. Instead of hearing my point, they just justify theirs. Our chains have a way of winding themselves around the next generation.

Here’s the good news: there is One who sets captives free!

In Christ we’ve been given the power to live differently. We don’t need to keep repeating our same damaging patterns. Consider some of His promises.

  • Romans 8:37  . . . in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
  • Philippians 4:13  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
  • 1 Corinthians 2:16  . . . But we have the mind of Christ.

God has given us so much more than we realize or utilize! We have been given the very mind of our Lord and Savior. He is always patient, always kind, always loving, always forgiving. What’s more, He’s a great listener.

You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.

Psalm 10:17

Jesus desires to demonstrate His character through us. What if we allowed Him to teach us to listen like He does? It starts with learning to listen to Him.

Allow me to let you in on a little secret. Our problem isn’t actually that we don’t know how to listen; our problem is that we consistently listen to the wrong voice. We’re so tuned in to the cries of our own selfish desires that we often refuse to consider anything else.

We must learn to quiet ourselves and listen for the voice of our Shepherd. His motives are always to heal, to encourage, to restore. Rather than simply rattling off our own personal thoughts, we need to seek His.

When we take a moment to listen for His guidance, He will stir us toward restoration. He will convict us of our own selfish motives and reveal our deceptions. He will lead us on the path of encouragement when we listen for His words instead of spouting our own.

And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times. Psalm 12:6

When we speak with His words, we don’t ever have to worry that we’ll say the wrong thing. His words create life where it didn’t exist.

And as we learn to let Jesus guide us through our difficult conversations, we will notice something else. We become changed. His presence reveals the fleshly attitudes of our hearts and sifts them. As a result, we become more like Him. We will naturally become better listeners and find ourselves compassionately moved to hear and consider the needs of others.

I’m so thankful that Jesus releases chains. He’s changed my heart, and I’ve learned to respond to people differently. Sometimes. But when I stumble, He’s always there to pick me back up and direct me toward forgiveness. Healing follows.

His love is better than life.