Today’s devotional challenges us to pay attention to God’s omnipresence, thus discerning His voice in our lives. As we couple insights from both books together, we should be thinking through our norms, values, and ultimately ‘What Would Jesus Do’ in whatever and wherever our lives bring us.
In Whisper, Mark Batterson details the ever so close, and constantly speaking/singing voice of God;
“The voice of God is all-powerful but that’s only half the story. His voice is also all-loving…we’ll explore seven languages of God. The first language is Scripture, and it’s the Rosetta Stone. The other six languages we’ll look at are secondary languages: desires, doors, dreams, promptings, people, and pain. But all of them are love languages. Why? Because God is love”.
“…when you love someone, you love the sound of his or her voice. And you long to hear it. A relationship with God is no different”.
Psalm 29
Take a moment to read through Psalm 29
“One translation says, “The voice of the Lord is fitted to the strength”. In other words, it is custom fitted to the unique strength of each and every person. Translation: God speaks your language”.
“God is big enough. He’s big enough to speak through doors and dreams and people. He’s close enough to speak through desires and promptings and pain”.
“Catholic priest Desiderius Erasmus (1466 – 1536) coined the Latin phrase ‘vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit’. Translation: “Bidden or not bidden, God is here”. The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung engraved those words above the door to his home. Not unlike the Jewish custom of engraving the words of the Shema on the doorposts of one’s home, that simply statement served as a constant reminder of God’s presence: omnipresence”.
Again and again, we see and hear the inconsistency between those who profess to follow Christ in the virtues of His kingdom and the reality of imperfection in our world and lives. This should cause us to take serious our understanding and reflection of Jesus Christ. In Untamed, Alan Hirsch notes, “…ignorance of Jesus by those who claim His name is toxic to both the believer as well as those around him or her”.
Furthermore, “The discontinuity between Jesus and the religion that claims His name is what Jacques Ellul calls the “subversion of Christianity”.
“Reclaiming the centrality of Jesus..”
“Jesus is the key not only because Christian discipleship is about becoming more like Jesus but also because it is only in and through Jesus that we can get the proper, truly Christ-ian understanding of God. In other words, Jesus gets defining rights in relationship to life, discipleship, theology, and everything in between. Not only is He the mediator between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2:5), He is the prism through which we can understand God (Colossians 1:9-21; Hebrews 1:1-3).”
Seek out God’s presence in your current situation today. How is God speaking to you in the moment? What is He saying? How is His voice causing you to grow in a more consistent manner as a Christ-follower?
May His presence bless and inspire each of us,
Pastor Michael Miano