A Year of Prayer: Season One Weekday DevotionalsSample

Samuel could not have imagined that, as a child, his story would be written in what would become the Bible. Hearing voices in that echo-filled temple, far from his mother and father, he at first thought that it must be his mentor Eli when the Lord called him.

‘Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.’ (1 Samuel 3:7 NIV)

He had grown up around the word spoken by God and the things spoken of God. Samuel knew the people of God and worked with God's priests. His own birth testified to the faithfulness and pleading of his pious, dedicated mother, Hannah. But Samuel did not yet know the Lord.

That’s why the voice seemed like it must come from a human, a logical result of our rational brains struggling to place a voice or an action so out of the ordinary! Sometimes, we do not yet know the Lord, even as God speaks to us. ‘My child, my child…’

We must seek to listen and pray to recognise. Your story is still being written, and you are still being called every day. What will your response be?

Prayer: God, help me to know your voice, recognise your call, and receive your word today.

Action: How have you seen something ‘supernatural’ beyond what is known or understandable in your own life? Reflect on this and ask God to show you what it means. Trust a friend with this fellowship!