Imagine these two pictures…
The first is a headmasters/principal’s office, big desk, big chair, angry man behind the desk looking all stern, super busy with loads to do and annoyed at being interrupted and having to deal with you. This is how we can see God at times, as an authority figure disapproving and too busy with running the universe and dealing with the worlds ‘real’ problems to want to deal with us and our little problems.
But then imagine a picture of the old type of phone with a cord attached to the wall, do you remember those type of phones? By the phone is an excited teenager waiting for a special phone call. I remembering being a teenage girl, having an old phone like that and desperately waiting for a phone call from a friend. I would sit by the phone all night, just trying to make it ring with my mind power. I would be worried about leaving to go to the toilet or to get food, in case it rang and I did not get back in time (no leaving messages back then). Every now and then I would pick up the receiver to check the dial tone, to make sure it was still working, then hang it up carefully so it was properly in place.
These 2 contrasting pictures shows us to different ideas of God. But God is not like the grumpy old man, he is more like the teenager excited and desperately waiting for us to call Him. He is waiting for us to pick up the phone, to call to tell him about our dreams, our hopes, our fears, our struggles and to ask Him about the plans he has for us.
A phone call is a two-way communication. And God is waiting eagerly for us and is eagerly waiting to talk to us and share with us His plans. In the old days the phones where connected to a wall so you had to just stand there and talk to the person on the other end, totally focused on the conversation. Now days we walk and we chat and do the dishes, watch Tv, send emails or whatever, the person on the other end does not have our full attention. But God wants a old fashioned phone call from us.
God has some really exciting and important things to share with each of us but we need to pick up the phone.
Can I challenge you to not only expect to hear from God but be open and willing to listen. Be prepared to hear something that we might not expect or be comfortable with. Gods plan maybe something you don’t want to do or something you never thought of doing or something so far outside your comfort zone it terrifies you. And that is GOOD, growth happens in the space beyond what we know and it is time to explore that. Gods plans are for our good, to prosper us and not to harm us, for our future and to give us Hope.
Gods plans are not to leave us where we are, it is always about growth, moving ahead and becoming more and more like Jesus.
Lets create space to hear from God where we are listening with expectation and with an open heart to hear HIS plans without filtering them through what we want to hear or through our own plans. Let God tell you HIS plan for your future.
