Call Waiting... with God

Do you remember when call waiting became widely available? I just found out it was invented in the 1970s, but it wasn’t in our house until the 1990s. I don’t know if it was because we were a small town, or that at that point there were two teens in the house. I just remember the elation knowing that my calls would get through, or that I didn’t have to get off the phone if my mom was expecting a call (well, maybe). I could just click over, take the message, and get back to my important business. Even more, no more busy tones calling my friends! 

Lately, I’m wondering if I’m the call waiting trying to get through to God. I’m worried I’m getting the busy signal, and I’m just waiting for the call waiting click to happen. Do you ever feel that way? You’re trying to seek God, His purpose, His will, answers to what is happening. Or just, Hello, are you there?? Yet, there’s nothing. No clear answer. No clear path. No clear voice.

What do we do when it feels like God is not answering our call?

The question we need to ask ourselves is, are we really going to God? 

It is so difficult to separate ourselves from the culture with which we are ingrained. There are tiny little things that continue to separate us from God. Sometimes it can be a big thing, but we’re usually pretty good at knowing those. It’s the little things that distract us, just enough. God’s Spirit does not yell or wave for our attention. He quietly waits, speaking gently and calmly. If there is something in our way, it will be pretty hard to hear Him.

God wants us to know that it’s not so complicated to hear him. But He doesn't do the work for us. He requires the work from us, and when we come to Him, He is right there ready.

What kinds of “little things” am I talking about? Let’s look at the fruits of the Spirit.

They are really not all  little when we really look into it. But our culture will have us believe they are no big deal.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23

When we look at this fruit- and they are called that because they produce good things in our lives- we can see what might be in our way when we look at the opposite of that fruit. For example, Love. What might be the opposite? Things that produce us to NOT love- resentment, hatred, quarreling, hostility… This can help you think about things God wants to bring to your attention. He wants you to be redeemed from what is keeping you from Him, especially that which you may be unaware. 

Going through the fruits and thinking of the opposites can be a good exercise to bring attention to what we need to clear up in our lives between us and God. To help, we can look at what the bible points out as the desires of our sinful nature.

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Galatians 5: 19-21

Here’s the thing. We have paths in our life that we take; our experiences shape us and influence who we become. Right now, God could be saving you from a wrong path. If we could put just a little effort in to meeting with Him and hearing His voice tell us what to rectify/stop doing/start doing… we will be walking down a path with His protection. It takes effort for us, but He will give us strength and clarity as we go. We may never know what we avoided, but do you really want to go there? Do we want to hit rock bottom and turn and see that it possibly could have been avoided? 

That is where I am. I am working on my list of fruit and slowly being molded by God. I have found that our heart does change- ever so slowly- as He lovingly, with the most grace you could ever imagine, works on our hearts. 

The other part is that it comes down to obedience. Are we going to let Him refine us? Getting rid of the sin in our lives that separates us? Of course we can never be sin free in this life, but every day, we need to seek His forgiveness, seek the fruit of His Spirit, and let His truth change us. Last July He told me, “When you don’t obey (with a personal struggle), then we spend much more time working on you than working on my kingdom.” Wow. The truth hurts, lol. But He DOES want to work on US, so that we can work for His kingdom! And if we just get to it, we are more readily available for His work through us. By the way, that statement hurt, but He relayed it to me in the most gentle, loving way. Not so harsh. But He got to the point. I love that about God. My own shame is self-inflicted, never something God puts upon my heart. 

To clarify, God speaks to us despite sin in our lives. He is not quiet until we are 'clean' before Him. I am saying it is a distraction to us, and we need to seek out what entangles us in order to see God right in front of us!

So. Is God waiting to click over to answer our call? No. He is already on the line, speaking to us. We are the ones that need to answer.

What I have found is that God is not the distant one. He is not the quiet one. 

It is us.

Put it into practice:

• Think about ways you see the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Bring them before God. Let Him guide you on what to do.

  
  

• Seek God daily about it. These things take time, especially if it is a habit that has formed in your life.

• If there is pain or trauma due to another person that results in resentment, hate, or any other emotion that is not the furit of the Spirit, I am not telling you that it is wrong to feel that way. Bring it to God. He is empathetic and He can heal our heart like nothing else can. Sometimes we fill that void with other things to not think about it, but God can actually heal it. Bring it to Him daily. He can handle our emotions. :)

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.

I am not a Bible scholar or preacher, I am just a girl who loves Jesus. This is my interpretation of things I have learned. I hope it can encourage you and lead you to the bible to see the truth for yourself. :-)

Access your bible from anywhere. BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages. (n.d.). https://www.biblegateway.com/