God is Always Speaking

2 Timothy 3:16,17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

I have always looked on those who claim that God talks to them, with significant skepticism. Hmm . . . You might be a nut. The truth though, is that God is constantly speaking.

We were created for an intensely personal relationship with Him and He speaks through His spirit, other people, books, nature and perhaps most obviously, through His word.

Paul, in today’s passage, said that God’s word, when ingested, will grow me into what He wants me to be. The opposite is true as well. When I turn a deaf ear to His word, I court disaster. This is not just my drug addiction of years gone by. This is who I am now when I refuse to listen to God. I may not be abusing pills, but I still wallow in my self-centered, deceitful, addictive behavior when I do not follow God’s voice.

It is unfortunately, often only in my disaster that I stop to listen. When I turn a deaf ear to God, He must use pain to capture my attention. In my pain, I tune back in to God’s word and begin listening again. When I purposefully listen to God, He draws near, growing life in me. When I refuse to listen, I distance myself from Him, breeding destruction.

When I find that God is silent, it is usually because I have chosen deafness. I cannot expect to hear God when I have indulged in the ear plugs of my own flesh. I must daily choose to read, pray and listen to God’s word if I want the effect of His voice in my life.

So, God talks to me. Does that make me a nut? If the choice is between the destruction of listening to me or the life of listening to God, then I am OK with being a nut.