"Shhh... " -God

I am always surprised at the amount of verbal communication others are hearing from God. I've read books where authors claim to have had long conversations with our Heavenly Father. Countless times, I have heard friends say "Then I heard God say..." or "I could hear Him telling me to..." Well, to be honest, it always makes me feel a little insecure about the amount of verbal communication between me and the Big Man. To counter this, I'm told, I should spend more time alone with Him. I should read the Bible more. I should meditate on Scripture. Then, maybe God would talk to me more.

Well, I don't buy it. I spend hours alone with Him every week, and I read the Bible on a consistent basis. I meditate on Scripture daily. There must be another reason that God does not talk to me. The reason, I can only assume, is that He doesn't have much to say. One of my friends helped me to understand that even in Scripture, God does not typically use many words to communicate. When you consider that the Bible was authored over a 1500 year period, it becomes clear that God does not chose to speak often or for extended periods. The next time you are reading the Bible, take special note of the actual statements credited to God's verbal communication. Though they are many, they are not the majority of the text.

So, what has He said to me? Well, in my 13 years as a believer in Jesus Christ, I have been on the receiving end of only a handful of short statements that I believe that God has actually spoken to me. Invariably, these statements captivate my attention for weeks or even months as I share them with my wife and my friends. Some examples of God's words to me are: "Call your dad." "Call your mom." "I know you're hurt." "Stay with me." "Come back."

But the one thing I have heard God say more than anything else is, "Shhh..." I suppose that He prefers to be intimate with me quietly. Perhaps my own overuse of verbal communication leaves me longing to hear God's words to fill the silences. Nevertheless, there we are, Father and child, quietly enjoying one another's company. I love Him.