Imagine God up in heaven right now looking down at you asking that very question. "Hey (insert your name), can you hear me now?" Have you ever been on the phone with someone and your talking and you can hear them talking, but you know they can't hear you? I wonder if that's how God feels when He tries to talk to us. He hears our prayers, and tries to guide us through life, but because we don't know His voice, we don't get what He's trying to relay to us. So many times, Christians talk about how they pray and God is silent. While, that may be happening, I wonder how frequently a lack of knowledge of God's voice is mistaken for silence.

As Christians, we go through life and desire to have God guide our lives and help us make decisions. We are so grateful for all that He has done for us, and because of this, we want to live lives that are glorifying to Him. We seek to know what God’s will is for our lives. When things get tough, we pray that He will show us what to do next. All of this is great, but a problem that I’ve noticed for myself and I’m sure is true of others is that we don’t actually know God’s voice.

Jesus was aware of this too when He shared the parable of the Good Shepherd. As you probably know, Jesus likes to use stories to help his followers understand what He’s saying. In this one, the shepherd represents Jesus and his followers (all of us) are the sheep. John 10:2-5 details this parable…

”But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

The sheep know to follow the shepherd because they know his voice. Similarly, we can allow Jesus to lead our lives and guide us through it all, but first we must know his voice. We learn what Jesus’ voice sounds like through reading His Word and spending time in prayer. As this new semester begins and you are trying to figure out your schedule, I urge you to find time to spend reading God’s word and praying. My prayer for all my friends is that their lives may be lived with the love and joy that comes with following God’s lead, but that can’t happen if you don’t hear Him.

Now before you close this page and think about how you are so busy that you don’t have time to read your Bible, listen to what my friend once told me while we were talking about this topic. She told me that when I say, “I’m too busy to read my Bible”, what I’m actually saying is, “God isn’t a priority in my life, therefore I’m not going to find time to read my Bible.”

It sounds harsh, but when you think about it, it’s true. Hardly do I ever tell my friends that I’m too busy to spend time with them. I never say that I’m too busy to eat a meal. Nor do I say that I’m too busy to study for an exam. Rare are the occasions that I say this because they are all priorities in my life. I need to eat, to be a good college student you have to study, and I care about my friends so I spend time with them. You claim that God is the most important thing in your life, but when it comes to spending time in the Word, all of a sudden there are 100 things that are more important.

If God is important to you? Treat Him like He is. Do you want to live the life God desires for you? Learn to hear His voice above all else by spending time in His word. Don’t let this semester go by without learning to hear the voice of our Creator.