It's noisy

"Apparently the fireball on Mount Carmel had no lasting impact on Elijah either.  Terrified for his life, the prophet put forty days' distance between himself and Queen Jezebel, Ahab's vengeful consort.  And when God next met with Elijah, he did not appear in a fire, or in a great and powerful wind, or in an earthquake.  Rather, he came in a whisper, a thin, small voice almost like silence..."

Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God, p. 89.

At times I feel bombarded.  There's a lot of noise in our world.  Electronic devices, phones ringing, music playing, TV's on, radios blaring...Noise!  I can't help but be distracted by the noise.  I feel like I am missing something because of all the noise.  There's something special about silence and many times noise distracts from the beauty of silence.

While serving as a Youth Director, I loved to take kids on mission trips.  Mission trips were the cornerstone of our summer activities.  We would go on mission trips to give the kids an opportunity to serve and also to see how God could use them and work through them.  God did some great things through us and it was an honor to be used by Him.  We saw people come to Christ.  We saw impassable situations worked out.  We experienced the presence of God guiding and hold us in the palm of His hand.  These were certainly big things.  When we were on these mission trips, I was amazed at how we also saw the smallest ways God provided.  The little things along with the big things were provided.  I am convinced even today that one of the reasons that we were able to recognize God's presence --both big and small -- was because we didn't have the distractions that we bombarded ourselves with at home.  No TV's.  No iPods.  No Gameboys.  No cellphones.  No noise to distract us, and what resulted was our ability to recognize God's presence in our lives.

We know that there are times when God seems to shout and say, "I am with you!  I love you!"  We also know that there are many times when God does not "shout" over the noise in our lives, and He speaks in a still, small voice.  Elijah quickly forgot about the "shout" of God at Mount Carmel when he was being pursued by Jezebel.  He was afraid.  He was running.  He felt alone.  He was distracted.  But in the silence of being alone, Elijah recognized the small voice of God speaking to him.

Stop and sit in silence today and let God speak to you through His comforting, small voice.