"Speak Lord, for your servant is listening."

In 1 Samuel 2:30 we read that the Lord said "Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained." It gives us two places that we can be...we are either honoring Him or despising Him. He doesn't give any other options. No middle ground.  There is no half way pursuit. Luke warm will not do. But how? How do we do this? I believe in many ways but this particular text gives us an incredibly important example.

At beginning of chapter 3 in verse 1 it says.." In those days the word of the Lord was RARE-there were not many vision." The significance of this verse could be many things. I'm not a biblical scholar but here's what I got: in THOSE DAYS it was different from these days we are in now. In THESE days thus if it used to be rare to hear God then in these days it is not rare. In THESE days He speaks to us. He gives us vision, He gives us desires. 

So in two verses we are called to honor Him and we are told He speaks ... but How? How do we Honor him?

As we continue to read 1 Samuel we then see that the Lord was calling Samuel and He kept running to Eli as He didn't recognize God's voice. How often do we do the same. He calls and we run to someone or something else. But here is a beautiful instruction in 1 Samuel 3:9 that Samuel was told to say "Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening." Such a beautiful instruction that I hope you will just take a moment and think about. Reread that line.

These instructions right here are heartbreaking to me. If in our day it's not rare for God to speak, then how is it so rare that we say "Speak, LORD for your servant is listening." In my own life that brings heartbreak as it brings conviction. I am called to listen. I am called to serve and yet too often I get caught up in my plans, in my life, in my circumstances.

As I am praying for God to just show up it just shows me what my response needs to be. Silence. Obedience. I need to pursue him with a passion and urgency and when He speaks I need my response to simply be that I am his servant and I am waiting for instruction. Do not confuse this with passive sitting and doing nothing waiting for God but rather be RUNNING toward Him and listen to his direction. And when we don't do this.

We have two choices: Honor or Despise. So which do you do? Do you honor Him? or do you dispise Him? Do you listen to Him or do you listen and assume it's someone else like Samuel did at first? Do your run To Him or do you run AWAY from him? Do you recognize His voice? Do you stop to listen to it?

As I continue to pray and encourage others to do so as well I encourage you to remember that in our day God speaking is not rare and you can honor him by saying "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening." I'm praying for each of you who have decided to join me in this pursuit of prayer and hope you will share what you are learning as well.

2011 isn't over so don't wait for 2012 to start listening to God as He speaks. <3 Anita