Discerning The Voice Of GodSample

My three sons and I have a morning routine. Maybe you do too, whether you’re wrangling toddlers or teenagers or just trying to get your own self out the door in one piece. For my brood, our morning plan typically involves a strategic engagement of assignments for which each person, or at least somebody, is responsible—bed making, bathroom cleaning, dishwasher emptying, taking out the trash. You get the picture.

Now listen, I’m not saying it comes off without a hitch every day. Don’t ask me to take this illustration too far, unless you’re willing to come over and help me sort some laundry. The only thing I’m trying to say is, I don’t come up with this list of chores on the fly. That would never work.

Know how I know? Because I’ve tried that before. And trust me (or say a firm, confident, head-bobbing amen with me), it’s a recipe for chaos and frustration. 

Despite my own affinity for spontaneity and impulsiveness, I learned a long time ago that nothing—and I do mean nada—is accomplished during our mornings without a plan. Spur of the moment, flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants operations invite complete mayhem. Only a predetermined commitment to a plan is able (or, again, at least potentially able) to hold our mornings together.

Let’s pivot here and apply this same logic to something even more important than mama’s sanity on an average weekday. Let’s talk about that key we shared a conversation about earlier—the key of surrendered obedience that leads to actually hearing from God and being able to live with the pure satisfaction of doing His will. Is anything really more important than that?

No? Then what’s your plan for doing it?

We aren’t haphazard with a lot of the things we deem important in life: our health, our retirement plan, our monthly calendar of appointments. We even enlist others to help us stay on track with some of those things—help we’re sometimes willing to pay for! So, what about our commitment to being spiritually aligned with the God of the universe and with how He wants to direct our hearts? If we don’t put an intentional resolve and strategic course of action for following Him in place, we’re basically leaving it up in the air, susceptible to the flighty whims of our circumstances and feelings. There’s simply too much eternal treasure at stake for that.