Saturday, April 24, 2010

Just*Listen

I just felt the urge to blog about my Daily Devotion from this morning from my devotional bible.

My devotion this morning was about whether or not we're really listening to God's voice. I think that we all get too caught up in whatever we're doing: school, work, hobbies, friends, and forget to actually take a moment in silence to calm our minds and let God talk.

via weheartit.com

When I pray, I talk to God like I'm talking to a friend. I speak to him this way because I've known him all my life. He IS my oldest and greatest confidant even though I will never COMPLETELY understand everything about Him and never know everything there is to know about Him. But lately I feel like I haven't made enough one-on-one time. One of the passages from today's scripture was "Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down and if he calls you say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.'" (1 Samuel 3:9) I need more time in quiet to just let him speak to me. I think maybe this morning during my post-devotion prayer I was just given a little nudge to blog about this.

source

This summer I think I'm going to TRY to take 10-15 minutes each morning (at least while I still don't have a job), go outside, and sit. Sit, do my devotion, and just be quiet so I can hear what the Lord is trying to tell me. I feel ashamed that my life is SO overrun with miscellaneous CRAP (school, wedding, stupid job, WORRYING, etc) that I'm not truly listening sometimes. He listens to me and I should listen to Him. This weekend I'm going to make sure I set aside time for this...

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If anyone needs a good Bible recommendation, the one I have is AMAZING. I have the Zondervan NIV Women's Devotional Bible. I HIGHLY recommend it! It's written for women and BY women with a devotion for each day. Each devotion includes a scripture reading, anecdote, reflection questions, quote from a famous woman, and other related readings. The cover is SUPER cute too. Easy to carry around. I love my bible SO much.

My aunt also just gave me the Zondervan NIV Trimline Bible-in-a-Bag as a gift and i LOVE IT!


So those are just a few of my recommendations for a good, compact, but well-put together bible. Just comment if you have questions!

God bless
<3
E

5 comments:

Megan said...

Wow! I feel like I wrote this post myself! It is exactly what I have been thinking about lately! :) And I even read (and highlighted!) that same verse from 1 Samuel in my Bible! I am always so busy busy busy all the time and then its like, "Well God, why arent you speaking to me?" and then I remember that I didnt ever take time out of my day to stop and listen for Him.
Its neat to read that other people are going through the same thing! :)
Love, Megan

Alexandra Rae said...

i can't tell you how much this post means to me. I've tried writing a comment telling you about 6 times, but I just wanted to say... this post has really helped me!

You rock Elaine! You're the best.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Elaine...I love this post. God really does speak to us, but we have to take the time to listen. I heard this quote, and I found it to be powerful:

"The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie.
It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for
heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not
the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we
drink in every night." -John Piper

We fill our lives and our schedules with all of these things. They are actually good things. However, we tend to fill our schedules with all of these other things, and at the end of the day, our time we could be just sitting and resting in God's presence slips away. Not only does it dull our appetite, it dulls our ability to tune in to what God is really saying to us. We have a hard time hearing his voice, because we haven't made the time to listen when he's been trying to speak to us. We just sort of tune Him out and desensitize ourselves to His voice.

It's craziness, really. Right now, I think God's moving many of us to a place to truly listen for His voice. It's so amazing. :)

I love you girl! Thanks for this post and thanks for listening to the Holy Spirit's urgings. :)

<3 B

Unknown said...

great post, really encouraged and inspired me

Allison Drew said...

This was exactly what I needed to read! Thank you!