Speak Lord For Your Servant Hears

1 Samuel 3:9-10 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak,   Lord, for your servant hears.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.  And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant hears."

There is a quote from Star Trek - from a character (Zefram Cochrane) that makes a great deal of sense. "Don't try to be a great man. Just be a man, and let history make its own judgment." Being humble in what I do is important. It is a characteristic I have to constantly seek to hold onto. Pride is easy to embrace and pride goes before the fall.

These devotionals are fairly simplistic in their theology. I am not a biblical scholar. I am not a theologian by schooling or trade. I guess all I am is someone who the Lord would use.  And I am no different than the next person. Each and every one of us is someone the Lord would use to serve. Each and every one of us can serve the Lord. It really comes down to, are we listening?  Are we taking the time to discern what the Lord is saying to us? This is a fundamental question we need to ask of ourselves. Much of the distraction we impose on ourselves, or is imposed upon us, diverts our concentration from listening to what the Lord is saying. The Lord is always speaking, but are we listening? Having a rich prayer life is a goal of mine. Being able to focus not on what I want the Lord to do but to discern what the Lord would have me do is the goal I have. There are times when it is very easy to hear the Lord. And there are times when it is not so easy. My best analogy is a Christmas gift I was given. Pam, my wife, gave me a set of noise cancelling headphones to wear on my daily commute on the bus. They reduce the noise when I set them over my ears. But, when I activate the noise cancelling function the background noise goes away. All I can say is WOW! I can hear the music playing very clearly. The rumble from the engine and the road is gone. The ability to discern the notes or the words is greatly improved.

And so, what are you and I doing in our prayer life to eliminate the background noise that distracts us from hearing the Lord clearly? I would offer that each of us needs to look deep within to root out the distractions. It is imperative that we find a place (physical and mental) to go to and spend time in prayer. We need to connect to God in a deep and meaningful way. Our soul cries out to the Lord! The Psalm of David is a gentle reminder of how we should be. From Psalm 143:5-6 we read "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah."  We seek to reconnect with the Lord. We seek to do the bidding of the Lord, and not our own bidding. But first we need to connect with the Lord. The great man is the man who puts aside his foolish pride and does the will of the Lord. My friends, that is the man history will judge kindly. That is the man that history will call a truly great man for he placed the Lord first in his life. Let each of us glorify the Lord in all that we do.

PRAYER. Father of all Creation, we seek You Lord in thought, word and prayer. Open our ears so that we might hear. Open our eyes that we might see. Clear our minds to that might discern. Let Your will be done in our lives and Jesus carried out Your will on the cross. This we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.