My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2: 1-5 ESV

I’m sitting here watching the waves break over the ocean and just enjoying the vastness of the water all around. It goes further than my human eyes can see – miles and miles of water, waves breaking over the shores – it is simply beautiful. Did you know that there are parts of the Pacific Ocean that are almost 36,000 feet deep and 8500 miles long? That’s almost 64 million square miles. That is a whole lot of water. One of my biggest questions is how does that water know where to stay? Oh, sure there are scientific reasons to do with the moon and seasons but the real reason the ocean stays where it belongs is because that’s where God told it to stay and it listens! The fish in the ocean listened when God told them to swim in the ocean. The waves listen when God tells them where to break.

This devotion was going to be about the vastness of God’s love but God has changed my mind and I’m going to listen.

How many times have you heard God speak and you just shake it off? How many times have you wondered was that really God speaking at all? How many times have you wondered what will happened if I don’t listen to God’s voice?

We are studying about Nehemiah in Sunday School. If you know the story you know that Nehemiah “accidently” found out that his people and city where in trouble. The city was in great disrepair. The walls had fallen down and the city had no protection at all and was subject to war and looting from other nearby cities.  However, God spoke to Nehemiah’s heart and told him to go to the city and rebuild it. Now Nehemiah had a great many obstacles in his way including, his current job as cupbearer to the king, transportation to get safely to the city, and supplies to build the city once he arrived. He could have easily declared that the job was too hard and reasoned that someone else would do it, but Nehemiah listened to God. Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem and began the process of rebuilding the wall. Along with the wall he rebuilt the people’s relationship with God. We see through his story that Nehemiah faced several setbacks and troubles along the way, but each time, he sought out the voice he had learned to listen to – Gods. He prayed until God showed him the way and then he took the action God showed him. He listened to God’s voice.

Father, Thank You that You speak to each of us personally. Thank You that You give us ears to hear Your voice. I pray You would help us to hear with our ears and our heart. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.