Wake-up Call

Yesterday's post was especially meaningful to me. I hope you got to read it. Today, I've sat down with Isaiah chapter 50. (It's just 11 verses.) Why don't you spend a few minutes with it yourself first? Journal your own thoughts in responsivenes to God. Here are mine . . .

The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. (v. 4)

In this statement I hear God asking me to do a self-check. How open and sensitive am I to God's voice? Do I start each day listening for it? Am I paying attention to what God is teaching me?

If I start each day asking for God's guidance, thinking about pleasing him, determined to be wise about the steps I take by following his will, I will have the pleasure of God's companionship through my day. There is no one's presence I'd rather wake up to each day than his. But I have to remember to be intentional about listening and I have to have a teachable heart.Those are the prereqs for receiving the guidance I need.

When I am careful to listen to God and let him teach me his truth and his ways every day, then I have something really valuable to pass on to the people in my life, especially the most important ones. I'll have something worthwhile and meaningful to say to lift people up when they're feeling down. I'll have words of life, love, wisdom and hope. And that will make me a very appreciated person as they open up and trust me with their struggles and walk away encouraged! Otherwise, while I might find some encouraging words to say from my own wisdom, they might not be the ones that God really wanted them to hear. They might not reflect truth and may actually be misleading. It's one thing to give advice. It's another to share God's wisdom and the hope that only he gives.

God, please waken me each morning with a word from you. I will be listening.

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