Can You Hear Me?

 “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

John 8:47Let me share with you one of my favourite father-son stories that I have read:

There is a story about a father and a son travelling together to a distant city. There were no maps and the journey was long and rough and fraught with dangers. Only the wisdom and experience of the father would get them to their destination.

Along the way, the boy grew curious. He wanted to know what was on the other side of the forest, beyond the distant ridge they were walking. So, he asked his father if he could go and investigate and his father said yes.

“But Father, how will I know whether I have wandered too far from you? What will keep me from getting lost?”

“Every few minutes,” the father said, “I will call your name and wait for you to answer. Listen for my voice, my son. When you can no longer hear me, you will know that you have gone too far. Then, turn around and return to the place where you last heard my voice.”

In the business of daily living, you and I are immersed in our jobs, family situations, responsibilities and some recreations day in and day out; there is nothing wrong with being committed and responsible with things that are essential in our lives. But many of us may have allowed the care, worries, stress, loneliness, isolation and fears that may hit us unexpectedly to make us run off in directions that we think will lead us to the answers and solutions, only to find out we are actually lost in the commotion of it all. There are so many things that may be clamouring for our time and attention and we have not noticed how far away from God we have wandered that we are unable to pick out God’s voice through it all.

When things get rough and tough, Pastor Jesse emphasized last Sabbath, that Someone is praying for us; yes, Jesus is praying for us, along with our family and friends. God will not specifically remove the challenges and crises that beset us; He will allow us to go through it all with His strength and His power. But did you hear God through all your tears and sufferings?  Most often, when we feel we reached the lowest, we would likely ask, “Where are you, God?”  “I have been praying hard every moment of every day but “can you hear me?”

John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” 

No matter how far we have gone away, when we think we no longer hear God, we have to go back to the basics, to the very beginning.  First, we need to accept Him and surrender our lives to Him.  The more we know Him, the more we pick out His voice even from a distance.

 Next, we need to be intentional like Samuel.  We prepare to listen and invite God to speak to us.  1 Samuel 3:9, “… ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears…”

Lastly, we have to follow Him. When we recognize and know the voice of the Good Shepherd, then we obey Him. After Samuel listened, he surrendered himself to God and obeyed His voice.

In our busy, loud world – we have to slow down. Devote some quiet time with God, and there, we too will meet the Good Shepherd. Perhaps, we have been wrong all along when we keep asking Jesus, “Can you hear me?”  Undoubtedly, Jesus is always calling for His sheep to come to Him and follow Him.  Sometimes we do reach out to Jesus but we don’t pause for a moment or long enough to hear His response.  Wait!  Jesus hears us, but do we hear Him?

The next time you ask the Zoom team, “can you hear me?” remember Jesus.