Fresh Start July Issue | Page 27

ing me alone, behind, having a hissy fit, demanding to be breast-fed and wondering when, or if, He was coming back. “When God is trusting you with His silence, He is being intimate with you,” he explained. Honestly, that’s was heavy, it took a while to sink in. He was saying that God was silent because He wants me to trust in Him in me, not just in Him in others, and to quiet myself and hear His voice from within, that He would confirm Himself and His Word within me. I can’t explain that statement any further than that, but I do know, once again, God befriended me, and revealed Himself (John 14:9 –John 15:15). Just to know God went silent on someone else and that He yet speaks in clouded stillness kept me from feeling like the Lone Ranger without Pronto or a map, or Optimus Prime without Bumblebee. At the end of the week, following church service, I was impressed to visit church with a friend. I started talking myself out of the impression, telling myself it was only a feeling, my own thoughts, that there was no need to go since I was already leaving a service. I was rushing home to cook dinner, knit and watch episodes of Empire. In finding myself struggling so hard against the impression, I knew had to go and go in a hurry. Needless to say, I’m glad I did. Obedience has its rewards (and disobedience will cause you to cry Esau’s tears. That’s another story for another time). The pastor began his “Step It Up” series based from the book of Malachi, challenging parishioners to increase devotion and worship to God. In teaching, he said it is insensitivity to the love of God that blinds us to His current movements in our lives. He added that being consumed by the wrong things and continuous activities causes us to sacrifice our worship, reduce or eliminate our time and desire to feel God’s love, His hugs, security, and embrace, and that we’re in dire straits when we don’t recognize when God is trying to say I love you. “We should never lose our ability to hear God say, ‘I love you,’” he said. God loves us. Knows where we are. His loving ways are consistent. He is consistent. He never changes. He’s always the same. Always speaking, reaching out to us, revealing Himself, if only we open our eyes to see and our ears to hear. #### Iris Raeshaun is a freelance writer because she writes better than she sings. She also has a passion for photography and stamp collecting and is known for talking a lot. You may reach her at [email protected]. 27