Today’s Affirmation: I rise early and listen and incline my ear to hear.
God’s word is living and the same verse can meet me where I am in totally different places. Mornings like to today I am amazed how God’s word speaks to me even when I have taken it out of context. The morning I wrote down this affirmation I was thinking God wants me to rise early and listen to Him.
Maybe He wants me to listen to OTHERS He is sending to me too…As I reviewed Jeremiah 25:3 where I took today’s affirmation, I see that Jeremiah, for TWENTY THREE years (wow, that is being faithful), had taken the word given to him and shared it early in the morning to the people of Judah. Jer 25:4 says “”Again and again, the LORD has sent you his prophets, but you have not listened or even tried to hear.” (NLV)
Will I continue to listen for God each morning? Yes. Will I continue to cry out to Him to open my ears and my eyes to Him? Yes. Do I now also ask Him to open my ears and eyes so I may recognize His prophets He is sending to me? Yes.
I was wrestling with myself this morning as I knelt before God regarding the heaviness of some decisions I must make with work today. I was perplexed and prayed that He would move me from unclear thoughts in my head to knowledge of the heart. He made me see that there was light at the end of this tunnel. Now as I turn to His word I am feeling peace in knowing His Holy Spirit will give me the wisdom needed or maybe I should consider the words of the prophets He sends my way today. Not only is Jeremiah speaking to me this morning but so are some of you. Could it be my co-worker, a total stranger, you?
God is opening my eyes at how we can all encourage and speak to each other. There have been times when I have been frustrated by God’s silence. He hasn’t been silent at all. He has sent us the great prophets of the Holy Scriptures and he sends us ordinary prophets every day. Are we rising early and listening? Have we tried to hear?
- Have you ever heard God through someone else?
- Do you rise early to listen?
- What do you think a “prophet” looks like?
- Can you hear Him?
May we all share what God puts in our hearts today. May we put away our idols and listen to Him and His prophets. May we hear and may we be a vessel for His word so that others may hear God in us.
Are you listening?
Tom Raines
Christian Affirmations4Life
It’s always necessary for me to listen, to have my time with Him and be in tune with what the Holy Spirit may be saying to me through others…but especially when I’m in a “crisis mode”. At those times it’s life or death. Without my time w/ Him I so quickly spiral out of serenity and into chaos.
I’m encouraged by this today Tom.
And I’m praying for you to have the mind of Christ when dealing with your job…wisdom and direction (clear direction) and courage and peace my friend…
Thanks Robin, I pray you have had a great day. I have been traveling so I will go over and see if you have an update. I am sooo thankful that you take the time with Christ and then share your life with us!
I have been so busy in my Bible Study and blog prep I have not had my quiet time. God spoke to me, and reminded me to sit awhile and continue my read through the Bible. Finished Jeremiah just a month ago. Joey attends a wonderful Bible Study on Mon nights and they are going through Jeremiah. I found Jeremiah to be a hard message but one that is very relevant for today. God does not tolerate unfaithfulness to him. You know Tom, His word does not return void either. As we put drink the Word it gives us what we need. In Romans this week we learned that the gospel is strength to our salvation. The gospel is the word of God, the story of Jesus, in our lives, not to change our behavior but our whole identity. I find as he is changing me I am compelled to His Word. The key is not in knowing the Word… it is what you are talking about. It is in making application. I am praying for you now that He gives you the strength to do whatever he is calling you to do. Let us hear how it goes.
Thank you Patsy. I was amazed at the number of powerful affirmations came from Jeremiah. I can relate to how I can have a tendency to fill my quiet time with this blog thing. I must continue the journey to continue a daily praise and worship time with God. Thankfully, the affirmation blogs keep me in the word but I must be careful with this too! All went well at work today and I am at peace with the decision that was made. It helped so much to just bathe it in prayer and have confidence and openness to consider other people’s opinions… “at peace”, thanks for caring!
Praying for you and your tough decisions that must be made. Also thank you for this post. Even as a pastor having a time when I listen to God can come in short supply.
Thank you Bill for your prayers and I feel confident that the Spirit granted me wisdom and peace with the input of others. I will pray that you have time to be still with God and listen as I am sure the demands of your leading your flock can easily fill all of your time..I really appreciate your participation here and am honored you share your time with this affirmation effort.
Hi tomraines,
http://www.prophetspress.com/index.htm
This site is by John Millies. He speaks about the apostle and prophet and a number of other topics.
I find this teaching interesting because it speaks to topics from a Holy Spirit perspective. I am thinking that we as christians and christian leaders have strayed from this perspective.
This teaching is a challenge and yet it has appeal to me. John Millies also talks about the kingdom of God and how we are to relate and receive the gift that God has given to each member of the Body.
I haven’t read the entire teaching at prophetspress but thought you might like to read some areas about prophets and how they may work in the Body. I think prophets are ordinary people, although John Millies says they are often misunderstood and rejected. I believe that prophets get a ‘hope’ filled call from God. I think very much like a pastor gets a call from God. The ‘hope’ is that the individual called will function in that capacity. I believe prophets can be male or female.
Linda, thank you for sharing this information with me. I will check it out. As always, I really appreciate you stopping by and sharing your perspective!