Greetings!
One of the many blessings of a daily commute is satellite radio! It’s really a great bonus and if your car is equipped for it, I highly recommend it. They are not very expensive and you have over 120 channels of all the news you can handle, music of every shape and size, comedy channels, and sports channels. There is even an audio book channel where you can listen to people read great books and, this time of year, they have several channels with all Holiday music!
In the morning there is a radio station and the name and location of that station aren’t important (not based out of Indianapolis, by the way!). The radio show host often takes calls from listeners. And with everyone he tells them “thanks for listening.” Many times, I’ve noted, the listener says something like “I love you guys” or “I love the show.” The radio host will say back to the caller “We love you more” and it is really kind of neat to hear. It is not a surprise why they do so well because he openly expresses his love and thanks for the listener.
It got me thinking the other day that I’ll bet God doesn’t get to thank us for listening very often. We simply don’t listen to God because to do that would require tuning out the world around us. It would mean shutting off the radio and TV and noise around us, and sitting still. Lo and behold you will probably fall asleep, but listening to God takes work. One way I believe we can listen to God is to follow our hearts when it’s time for a decision to be made. Not to “over think” like we do in our heads, but to go the 18 inches down to our hearts and really listen. And when you make a decision and you feel at peace in your heart that is God, in my opinion.
In the Bible in First Samuel chapter 16 verse 7 David is selected as the next king. And the Bible says “people look on the outside, but God looks upon the heart.” It was David’s heart for God that got him selected king, not his size and/or strength. God looks upon the heart just like in the movie E.T. when the character knows he is going home. His heart light is lit up and he is excited knowing he is going home. “Home, home” he says. And when we follow our hearts we are moving closer to God and closer to going to our eternal “Home” in Heaven.
Oh, yes, by the way, God always, always and forever says not only “I love you” but “I love you more.” And more, and more and more the unconditional love of God is for all of us because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus!! Now that is a daily blessing we can live with!
God Bless,
Pr. Doug Givan
IN PREPARATION FOR THANKSGIVING WEEK THINK TODAY OF 5 THINGS YOU ARE THANKFUL FOR AND WRITE THEM DOWN! DO IT EVERY DAY AND IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE…(from an Oprah Winfrey show). God bless you!
Eric is our current Webmaster and works on the NLS Communications Team. Raised in Judaism, he found Christ and the New Testament at age 16 in a Southern Baptist Church. He searched many denominations for the real church, only to find the Holy Spirit is present in all of them. He's worked for One for Israel, a group of native Israeli believers who are sharing the gospel in the holy land in Hebrew and is part of the only Hebrew speaking seminary in Israel.
