Janet and I have been married going on 43 years now and to borrow a line from one of the songs in My Fair Lady, “I’ve grown accustomed to her face…” Not only that, I have grown accustomed to her voice and it is remarkable to me that no matter what I am doing, in a crowd or alone in the room with her, I immediately recognize it when she needs something from me. I could be in the middle of the largest crowd imaginable and yet I know exactly where she is and am attuned to the sound of her voice.
And I am sure that she would say the same thing about me. No matter the circumstance, she somehow mysteriously responds to the faintest whisper I speak. She is so accustomed to my voice that she can fall asleep watching television and yet, if I ask her to change the channel, or raise the volume, or fast forward, etc., – no problem. She does it on autopilot. Who else knows somebody who can control the remote in their sleep and not even remember it when they wake up? And I’m not kidding – this is the truth!
I got to thinking about how impressive it is that you know someone so well they respond to you even when they are asleep. But I think that is a natural outgrowth of spending a huge amount of time with somebody and getting to know every nuance of their being. Such is the relationship that Janet and I have after knowing each other since we were five – back on the south side of Chicago in Beverly. In fact, maybe some of you don’t know that Janet’s folks and my folks were best friends for years… I really can’t remember a time without the Boyd family in my life in one way or another.
So what I have learned is that there is no substitute for spending time with someone if you really want to get to know them – and to be known by them… It’s the same way way in our relationship with God – the more time we spend with Him, whether in prayer, worship, solitude, community or even nature, the more intentional our relationship will become. Of course, He already knows everything about you that there is to know. Since He created you, He knows you better than you know yourself. And while He hears everything we say or do, particularly when we call Him by name, sometimes we are not as attuned to His voice when He is trying to tell us something…
That’s where a number of us need to work on our relationship with the Creator of the Universe – we need better listening skills so we can respond even when we are engaged in doing something else. Since God always hears us, wouldn’t it be great if we could honor Him the same way?
The verse for this evening serves to remind us that God created us and knows everything about us. He hears our voice each time we cry out for Him – regardless of whatever else He may be engaged in at the time. And since God is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all powerful) and omnipresent (everywhere at once), there is never a wait or a line ahead of you when you need access to the Father or His Son. In fact, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, God lives inside each of us who believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
The psalmist put it pretty simply, when he tells us in Psalm 139:15-16, “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” That’s right – God knows each of us so well that He knows each and every day of our lives.
My encouragement this evening is that God wants us to recognize His voice as surely as He recognizes ours. My prayer is that you will spent some time investing in a deeper relationship with the Father and get to the point where you yearn to hear Him call you! Isn’t that the ultimate relationship with God – being able to have an intimate conversation with a friend? Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…