Sunrise fills my Eyes

Jackie:

Since we've been at the YWAM base we've heard lots of teaching on "hearing God's voice". This has been a tough one for me because

a) I am a somewhat skeptical person

b) people mis-use God all the time and what he has allegedly "told them to do" and

c) it's hard to believe he really can and does want to talk to me and tell me specific things.

The teaching has been excellent and there has been story after story about how God has spoken to his people, they listened, obeyed and then seen literal miracles happen. I'm not just talking about things that happened in the Bible but people our age who have witnessed things I never would have imagined. Even something has non-romantic as needing a new computer, praying for it, and receiving and email the next day from someone they haven't spoken to in years telling them they have just bought and shipped them a new computer.

Even being here for a month, I have already learned that one way God speaks to me is through nature. I've always known this but lately I think I have begun to understand it and pay attention to what He is saying.

This morning (Monday) I decided to drive down to the lake to catch the sunrise. I've been meaning to do this for a while now but when you wake up to 30 something degree air and darkness that even covers the mountains, you don't really feel so motivated to get out of the warm bed, much less de-ice your car to leave. After scraping the car and almost backing into another car from limited visibility, I made it down to the lake and waited eagerly for the sun to rise. It was completely worth it. My hands were going numb as I photographed the colors change and the lake illuminate. I felt invigorated and alive, giving thanks to God for that moment he allowed me to witness. I drove back to the YWAM base thanking God that He knows me so well and wants me to share a moment.

My point is this, we don't always have to be in a church, or in a worship service, or at a Bible study to hear God. We tend to find him in the places that we find ourselves. For some it's nature, for some art, music, or maybe it's your thoughts and ways you analyze the world. Or maybe God uses another person to speak to you, gives you an image, a movie scene or a verse. He has designed us so uniquely and does not want us to just all imitate each other. I am finding that even in our church settings we do this. There is freedom that comes from knowing God is not tame and will not always fit within our constraints of how we think He will communicate with us.