Still, small voice

I’ve been reading a good book recently. There’s lots of good bits in it, I’m sure I’ll reference it again. But the bit that’s important for today comes in the chapter called ‘Uniquely You’. The gist of the chapter is to be you, exactly as you were created to be, unique and wonderful. To do that, you need to let God guide you. You shouldn’t compare to others, just trust God.

It then goes on to say that in order to let God guide you, you need to recognise his voice. I wonder how many times you have heard a Christian say, “God has been speaking to me about…” or something similar. Have you ever wondered what that might sound like?

I know Christians who say things like that on a regular basis, as well as Christians who couldn’t be sure of God speaking to them because they’ve never been told how to recognise it. The difficulty is that it is hard to put into words what it sounds like to have God speaking to you. I have previously mentioned about God using friends around me to talk to me (which I sometimes think is because I don’t trust myself to hear God correctly directly and need to external confirmation…). Sometimes people will have dreams or visions from God.

But mostly, it’s like a picture or a phrase rather appears in your mind. And in the book, it described it rather well:

How do we hear God’s voice? It is not usually an audible voice, but a still, small voice in our spirit that causes us to know what to do.

Authentically, Uniquely You by Joyce Meyer

Which triggered a memory of an exercise I once did with a church. I got one person to read a phrase from the bible (not sure which one, probably something about God’s love), then about 5 other people to loudly shout things that might be on a daily to do list like ‘Do the washing up’ or ‘meet that deadline’. I asked people what God was saying but through the din, they couldn’t hear. Life can be like that for us. It was for Elijah.

Elijah had many successes and a good relationship with God, but when his life was threatened and he was afraid and in despair, that went out the window. He ran away and gave up. He literally told the angel of the Lord that he wanted to die. So the angel of the Lord fed him, made him take a nap and took him away from all the distractions. And it was there that Elijah heard the still small voice of God telling him the next step, reawakening hope, proving that Elijah hadn’t been abandoned.

It can be hard to know the right way to turn at times. Maybe there’s a big decision you need to make, and one logical answer but somehow the internal conflict doesn’t make it an easy decision. (OK, that’s a personal recent experience, but maybe you have something in your life that relates?) I recently had the opportunity to go away for a few days to somewhere with no mobile reception and very dodgy Internet. In the run up, I’d had been wrestling over a decision and just couldn’t work out what to do. I could argue it with myself each way, and the ‘right’ decision seemed to change every hour (and that’s not much of an exaggeration…)

So while I was away with little contact with the outside world, everything went quiet. And there was that ‘still small voice’ helping me to make the right decision, a pull in my spirit to know what decision was best for me. Was it the logical option? Not to anyone else, no (and I had heard plenty of advice about what I should do). And yet, I came away at peace, knowing that it was the right decision for me and God agreed – because that still small voice had led me to that decision.

So if you are at a crossroads and don’t know which way to go, if you are conflicted over a decision, if you are feeling lost and need a bit of guidance, move away from the distractions and loud voices and be still and quiet. Because God will guide you – trust him and your self. He is the still small voice.