Dear God, I'm ready to listen

I had gotten a new tea mug about a year ago; you know the kind with a neat saying on it. I was more interested in the fact that it was huge and I like a "big" cup of tea, not one of those tiny ones where you can't even get your fingers through the handle.

Anyway, I was sitting and sipping my tea the other morning and took notice of the message printed on the cup. Now I know I have read it before, but if you had asked me what it said, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. It may just be that I am more in need of the message now than before. Anyway, the message touched my heart this time. A simple message that said, "Dear God… I'm ready to listen now". The other side of the mug said in part, "God never puts a call on hold…. I can ask Him about anything and he is ready to listen."

We seem to understand the part about God always being ready to listen, but what about the other part, the part where we listen?

Part of the problem may be that we often expect an immediate, clearly stated answer from God and He doesn't always answer that way. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews deals with how God answers; take time to read it sometime... Simply, God sometimes doesn't answer in anyway which is perceivable to us. We continue to serve him and do what he asks of us anyway, which is called, "walking by faith". "By faith," we read that all of the great people of the Old Testament served God, never personally seeing the end result of the promise of God.

They married, had children, dealt with the daily stresses and problems, and went to work everyday having faith that God was in control, and knew what he was doing even if they didn't. How do we do that today? By believing that God is in control, one day at a time, or one hour at a time or even a few minutes at a time, because he is either in control of this world or he is not. That's the decision we have to make and live by.

Here is how they did it: Hebrews 11:13-16, "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth… they were longing for a better country; a heavenly one.."(NIV)

Someone else put it this way, "Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home."

Living in this world, looking for our true home! That’s the secret of living by faith and listening for God. As the old hymn says, "This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through…"