The whisper of God

Sometimes I expect my relationship with God to be a bit like the film Bruce Almighty. I expect God to come into the situation, for there to be a lot of comic mayhem involving a few capuchin monkeys, a parting of my cuppa-soup and a couple of hundred pounds of marijuana. We want our relationship with God to be Hollywood style, with some razzle dazzle and a sprinkling of flare.

I mean, it's not as if God can't do flare. He turned a river red, he cracked open the ground under a tribe of people, he brought down the walls of a city, he turned water into wine. God is the God of flare. God makes the Beijing Olympic Openning Ceremony look like a infant school talent show.

But God often likes to show himself in different ways. God called Elijah to a mountain top to wait for his presence. And this is what happened:

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

(1 Kings 19: 11, 12)

God was in the gentle whisper. God can do flare, and if it's right, will do flare. There have been amazing stories of people seeing the flare of God. But that's not how he deals with me. He comes quietly and gently in a whisper. However, I'm so often talking too loudly at him to hear.

Quick Questions

1. Have you ever experienced the flare of God?
2. What has God been whispering to you lately?
3. What things sometimes drown out God's whisper in your life?