With the acknowledgement of God comes both the cry for direction and the duty to obey. In other words, God’s communication to us comes in the form of His revealed will. What God says is true. It defines reality. It explains the meaning of our existence.

That’s why the psalmist cries, “Don’t hide your commandments from me!”

You see, the commands of God are not like a ball and chain around our ankles or a noose around our necks. They are life-giving guidelines. They provide meaning and direction in a world that would otherwise be gripped by alienation and meaninglessness.

Listen to the humble heart of this man as he reveals the proper approach to hearing God’s voice:

With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! (119:10)

Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. (119:35)

And I will delight myself in Your commandments, Which I love. (119:47)

Your hands have made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments. (119:73)

As you pursue God’s will in the various decisions facing you right now, consider the following principles from our lesson:

1. Acknowledge the Greatness of God! Meditate upon His role as Creator, Redeemer and King of the Universe.

2. Humbly recognize your place as a stranger on this planet. Confess your desperate need for God’s wisdom.

3. Find the wisdom of God by immersing yourself in God’s Word. Delight in the commandments of God!

4. Finally, obey what He has commanded. As we obey God, He will continue to be a “light unto our path.”

Before we can hear God, we must believe two things to be true: 1] that God actually exists and 2] that He speaks to fallen human beings like us!

Let’s examine the first assumption. If there is no God, there is no overarching “Will” to discover, and no higher “Authority” from whom we may seek wisdom or guidance. Since the godless ignore God, they have no desire to seek any “will” but their own. In the end, we are merely insignificant specks of dust in an altogether meaningless universe.

While some fallen humans actually try to convince themselves that meaninglessness is actually a liberating thing, most of us find this thought repulsive. We all live as if life matters. We look for meaning in every situation. To go through a godless existence would be like a lost, traumatized child frantically running through a shopping mall filled with total strangers, searching desperately for the familiar face of our parent.

For the Christian, life doesn’t need to feel like being lost at the amusement park! The first key to discovering God and His will is to humbly admit that you are a stranger. We find ourselves “alive” on planet earth and we had absolutely nothing to do with it. We didn’t create ourselves or this planet. We have absolutely no idea how things are supposed to work! Yet, when we look around, we see the signs of incredible intelligence and design. So what do we do? We should take some advice from the psalmist who cried out…

I am a stranger in the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me. (Psalm 119:19, NKJV)

We begin by admitting that we are strangers on planet earth. We need God to show us who we are and how He wants us to live. Humbly make Him your focus and He will direct your life.

“Do you have an arm like God’s,
and can your voice thunder like his?
Job 40:9

Imagine standing before your Creator, the Judge of the universe, and having him cross-examine you with a series of penetrating and unanswerable questions! That’s exactly what is happening to Job in the passage above. Have you ever been called to face your mom or dad when you’ve done something wrong and they’re more than excited to tell you all about it? Well, you’ve got the picture. Job has been challenging God’s right to be “BOSS” and God is ready to firmly put this earth bound creature in his proper place. You can feel the lump Job probably had in the pit of his throat as God begins with the command to “brace yourself like a man” (v. 7). When God tells you to buckle up, to brace yourself, you know you’re headed on a collision course with reality.

What follows is a list of questions seeking to remind Job that, yes, there is a God, but, no, Job is not big enough to fit the job description. God asks, “Hey, are your arms as huge as these?” Job probably looked at the pitiful, sore covered sticks hanging from his shoulders and squeaked, “Okay God, you got me on that one!” God, however, was only beginning.

The next question compares Job’s voice to God’s. Now this question reveals both good news and bad news. First, let’s consider the good news. God has a voice! Voices are for communicating. God wants to communicate with His creation. We shouldn’t take this for granted. Only Christianity believes in a personal, living God who desires to communicate with us. Without God taking the initiative to speak to us we would have no hope to ever know or love Him. This is the good news.

Now it’s time for the sobering news. While God most often communicates to us during our times of worship, prayer and Bible study in the form of a “still small voice,” He is more than capable of yelling if He needs to get our attention, or the entire world’s attention for that matter! His voice is compared to the earth shaking booms of thunder so familiar to us during violent summer storms. You know, the kind so loud they rattle the panes of glass in your windows! The kind so loud they send little brothers and sisters running to mom and dad’s room for refuge.

The Lord taught me the awesome fury of His voice in a rather humorous way during a visit to Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I had been studying and meditating on the topic of God’s sovereign power when I decided to take a break to do some jogging. I made my way through some quiet, secluded paths, across the beautifully manicured campus, and was now headed on the final leg of my peaceful, God-centered jog when disaster struck! AS I jogged along a sidewalk running parallel to a busy highway, a car pulled alongside me. Hanging out the window was a large dog, barking, growling and drooling as it tried to squeeze out of the car and into my life! Adrenaline shot through every cell of my body as I jumped in the air in sheer panic. As the car and its carnivorous canine drove safely into the sunset, I tried to quickly recapture my calm, cool, and collected clip, hoping all the while I had not made too big of a fool out of myself.

In my traumatized condition, that “still small voice” of the Holy Spirit reminded me that the cause of this earth shaking, adrenaline rush was a dog! The voice of a stinkin’ dog rocked my world! I suddenly realized why God prefers to deal with us with his “inside voice” as opposed to the one He might use to win the screaming competition at the County Fair!

Take some time to meditate upon the power of God’s voice. Read Psalm 29:1-11.

Have you ever been afraid or startled by a loud noise?

Imagine what it will be like for the wicked on judgment day as they stand before the fury of the voice of God!

I hope this blog today gives you a whole new appreciation both for thunderstorms and for forgiveness through Christ! Next time God shakes a piece of the earth near you with a boom of thunder, pause for a moment and offer Him the praise and glory due His name! Like Job, recommit your life to his sovereign control. And most importantly, joyfully listen to what He has to say.