God, Are you there?

Listening to God. In all honesty I have a hard time listening for God. I know a lot of people say that they hear God tell them things but I don’t think I can say that for sure. I know there are times when I feel a certain way about something, like my conscious telling me how to feel or act. I’ve heard people refer to that as the Holy Spirit talking to you. I guess I believe that too. There has been many times when I have seen someone who appears to be hurting in one way or another, whether it be a homeless person or just someone at the mall that looked sad. I have a conscious feeling that I should stop to help them. Sadly there have been more times that I have continued on walking away from that person. I know in my heart I should have turned back and I seldomly do. There was recently a time that I walked away not wanting to listen to the Holy Spirit when it was telling me that someone was in need. I walked away, got in my car and was about to leave work when the feeling was so strong that I turned my car and went back. That person was truly in need of a hug and a shoulder to cry on. Looking back to that moment I realized how awesome God is and that he can accomplish many things if we are willing to listen. I didn’t want to talk to that person and even drove away but ultimately I knew that God wanted me to be there for her. There are so many times that I have walked away, never to look back and it makes me wonder what would be different if I had stopped for them, stop to listen to God.

There are times that God wants to work in our lives but we refuse to listen. For me, there have been way too many of them. I know that God is there, watching my every move and listening to every thought yet I still do things that I know he would not be happy with. Why? Why do we do this to ourselves and to God? My life could be so much better if I just would have listened to him. At this point in my life I have decided to stop asking myself those types of questions, why or why not, mainly because it’s the past. Because it’s the past there is nothing that I can do about it. The only thing that I can do is focus on the future. I try my best to listen to the Holy Spirit. I know what’s right and wrong but it is ultimately my decision to make. That’s the wonderful thing about God, having a choice. God wants us to choose what we want to do. He could easy just make those decisions for us but he doesn’t want prisoners. He wants willing followers.