The Living Word

God has always been gracious to me in a sense that His word is never silent. I've heard lots and LOTS of stories about the bible stopping to speak after the person has been reading it for a while. It would be easy to judge and look for faults in the people to whom God stopped speaking. Except I don't think they are exaggerating, and the only thing I pray for that it NEVER happens to me. And it hasn't yet, for which I am indescribably grateful to Him.

In fact, sometimes He is so loud and clear that you can't hold back the tears because of His goodness. Yesterday for the first time in my life I cried at His words. It was truly a moving moment for me, in a sense that His reply was so immediate, so direct, and so affirmative. This is what happened:

I jotted down two sentences in my journal. "Today I realized that I would give up anything for worship. Not for singing on stage, but for the pure heart and connection with God through which others can also be blessed." Well, God must have liked that. A lot. Because the next thing I knew, He was speaking to me through His word. I opened my bible on Psalm 42 (Russian Psalm 41.) The last verse read "I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!" Could He be more clear?! Of course, at this point I was bawling, because an immediate, clear, and direct promise like that was unexpected, at the least. The strongest confirmation of Him speaking to me was the fact that I actually read the same psalm the night before and the verse definitely didn't jump out then. I read over it, like anything else, and went to sleep untouched.

Immediately after realizing what God is saying I wrote down how awesome He is. The best thing was that He didn't stop at that one verse. I kept reading. And low and behold, the very next psalm ended in... the same exact words! Not too many times God repeats himself. It was like a confirmation -- you are listening right. I AM speaking to you. I did NOT forsake you, you are My child, and I value our relationship and your praise. More than you can ever imagine. Enough to speak to you directly through My word.

When you seek God, run to Him, and open up your heart... He speaks. All you gotta do is listen.