Are you expecting divine fireworks to experience God in your life? Just like Moses on Sinai got to experience God in exciting ways? Sometimes it happens that way. But most often it does not. I am not saying that God does not move  mightily in today’s world (because he does). I am saying God did not move always that way thousands of years ago either. Let’s see, for example, how Elijah experienced God’s presence.

“Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13, NLT, emphasis added,*)

God came to Elijah as the sound of a gentle whisper. The same way God comes to us in silence. Unfortunately, we just have too much background noise in our lives that we don’t hear God’s gentle whispers. We just expect God to be always spectacular or dramatic and we might miss God’s whispers of encouragement or words of wisdom for our pilgrimage.

Both Moses and Elijah experienced God. Both encounters with God were special. He is the creator of the universe. Why would he stop being creative in ways to communicate with us? There is time for everything. Time for spectacular, time for ordinary.

However or whenever or wherever God comes to us, we need to be ready to hear and obey. In order to be available to experience God in different ways, we need to keep our spiritual eyes open. How else could we see his miracle-wonders? How else could we understand God’s amazing ways?

When we start to see God at work in and around us, our faith flows beautifully. And we realize – like Job – that this is only the beginning of God’s marvels.

These are just the beginning of all that he does,
    merely a whisper of his power.
    Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?
(Job 26:14, NLT,*)

God is more awesome than we can ever know. That knowledge fills us with peace and empowers for our journey here on earth. We are God’s beloved children and we are never alone. God is with us both in whisper and in storms.

 

Gracious God,
Thanks for speaking to us
in many different ways.
Open our spiritual eyes to see
your actions in our lives.
Thank you for loving us so.
Be praised forever and ever.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: How do you hear God?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you experience God in many ways!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]

Image courtesy of Luis Rivera, design Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up today with Faith-filled Fridays, Five Minute Friday and Faith Jam.