It took me a long time to realize when God was speaking to me. I would pray, thought I was listening, but never seemed to hear much. Turns out, he was speaking to me the whole time, just in a different way than I expected.
I was expecting a clear voice in my head telling me exactly what he wanted me to do. I was expecting things to just happen, solely based on my prayers. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had an abundance of blessings, but I still just felt like I couldn’t hear him.
One day, in a moment of quietness and worship in my mind, I suddenly found myself having a random debate in my head. A thought creep in, and for whatever reason, I kept thinking. “Is that you God? Or is my mind just being weird?” I was frozen in the moment, debating back and forth. The longer I stood there, the louder the thought got. “Ok God, you got my attention. I think it’s you anyways.” Still frozen in time, it was almost like now that he knew he had my attention, he shouted at me to make sure. And just like that, I got my affirmation.
I believe that God speaks to everyone in different ways. I’ve always been told that God oftentimes whispers to us, and if we don’t quiet ourselves, we can miss it. I relate to that, for me his word comes in quietly, but I feel it strongly in my core. Sometimes I feel it so strongly, that I can only describe it by saying that God is shouting at me.
The power in hearing God speak is that he will provide the words we need in any situation to be a witness to others. I love this verse and what it represents. We can cast the word out and maybe the bobber nudges someone and strikes their curiosity about the good news of Jesus. That bobber might wobble around just like when a fish is curious about if the bait is safe and will fill his belly. When that fish feels safe, he goes all in for that bait. When we witness to others and they see mercy and grace we are filled with when we are saved by the blood of Jesus, they could potentially go all in.
I encourage you, find a quiet place, open your mind and allow God to speak to you in his way, not yours. He wants to fill you up so much that you overflow into others. Be that person, always have your fishing pole on hand. You never know who’s out there in the murky water in need of a bobber.