Learning How to Hear: A 6 Day Journey of Drowning Out the Noise and Hearing From GodSample

Respond

Hosea 2:9-10 & 14-15: 

“Therefore, I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take wool and linen, intended to cover her naked body…. I will stop all her celebrations; her yearly festivals, her new moons, her Sabbath days – all her appointed festivals” …

“Therefore, I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and SPEAK tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards and will make the valley of ACHOR (trouble) a door of hope. There she will RESPOND as in the days of her youth…”

There are seasons where suddenly God begins to remove things from our lives until it feels like we are in a wilderness. He begins to take away what used to sustain us, our comfort, and even according to this reading, our elaborate Sabbath celebrations. Does it ring a bell? He’s not removing these things because these things are bad for us but because He has something new for us. But, before He introduces the new to us, He wants to SPEAK to us in the wilderness, in the valley of “Achor.” God says a lot in the wilderness because He knows we can hear Him better there. 

God led His people out of Egypt to the promised land through the wilderness so He could speak to them in the wilderness. He told them His commands and ordinances of the Sabbath so that they could live better and prosper in the promised land (Ezekiel 20:10-12).

Could it be that God is leading us through this wilderness we all are going through so He can speak to us and restore us? Will we respond to His voice?
 

Life Application: God is speaking. Let us consecrate the wilderness and devote our time and our attention to respond to His voice.
 

Prayer: Lord when you speak help me respond. Amen!