We have some amazing words from God about how He designed us to live our lives. He tells us that He desires that we live abundant lives, John 10:10, full and free. Galatians 5:1. I don’t know about you, but it is easy to think about this from a big picture, but to understand how these niceties fit into the nitty gritty details can often be beyond our imaginations.
But God cares about the details, too. He made that abundantly clear throughout the bible, giving out inches and feet, centimeters and meters, days and minutes all throughout his instructions, from the building of the tabernacle, to the temple, to what the future heaven and earth will look like.
How do we learn the details?
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 8:3
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Matthew 4:4
We must live by His every word. Believe them. Act on them. Follow them. When we don’t, we find ourselves sinking like Peter, full of fear because of the winds and waves of the circumstances of our lives. Matthew 14:22-33. When we do, we find ourselves walking on those waves in the strongest of winds, just like Peter did when he humbly obeyed Jesus’ simple word, “Come.”
We must listen and obey to God’s words in whatever form they come. They may not be actual words, but we can hear God speaking through the bible, nature, circumstances, others, pictures, dreams, and more!
All too often we get caught up in being unsure how to hear God’s word, His voice, His instructions for daily, detailed living. What we need to remember is that faith isn’t faith when all is plain and clear. Jesus’ call to Peter to come made absolutely no sense whatsoever. It defied the laws of physics. Nevertheless, Peter heard, Peter believed, and Peter obeyed. In the same way, we can hear God’s voice for our lives, believe we have heard, and obey. For some details about this, check out my earlier post, “Listen to His Voice.”
The next post will talk about how God might speak to us through becoming a parent.