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Apr 02, 2024 18:30pm

No Easy Button

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I was teaching my Sunday school class a story about Moses on Mount Sinai when I got the question.

“Amber, why doesn’t God just talk to us like He talked to Moses? I wish He would speak out loud and tell me what to do!”

Immediately, the others hopped on board with “Yeah!” and “For real!” A few of them persisted with, “So why doesn’t He?” Oh, friends, this was a moment a teacher loves to have with her pupils! It happened when I was teaching about Moses spending 40 days and nights with God on Mount Sinai, getting the Ten Commandments. There have been many times I yearned for God to crack open the heavens and boss me around in a situation. While I agreed with my students, I couldn’t leave it there.

Sensing a teachable moment, I followed it up with a question: “Would you obey Him if He did? Just because God spoke aloud to His kids doesn’t mean they believed in Him – they still disobeyed and rebelled. They still rejected Him.”

After a few seconds of silence, another question was asked, “But if He spoke to them then, why doesn’t He do it now?”

The next words that came out of my mouth were automatic (thank you, Holy Spirit!) – I help up my Bible and said, “He does! He speaks to us every day in His love letter.”

That got ’em.

Then, one of them jokingly said, “Amber, why do you gotta play dirty like that, pulling out the Bible card?”

We laughed, knowing it was true. You see, we live in a world where questions get answered fast.

Need a restaurant idea? Google it.

Have a question? Text it.

Want to get feedback from people? Facebook it.

Want to see your child who is away at college? FaceTime her.

In a world where things come quickly, it’s easy to yearn for that “easy button” when hearing from God. You know, the type of button that produces results fast and easy, bypassing things that involve more time and intention, like reading the Bible. But, friends, if I know one thing in life, it’s this: it’s on the pages of the Bible we learn about God’s character.

For the past two years, I did the Bible study The Bible Recap with Tara Leigh Cobble. For 365 days a year, I read a portion of the Bible, and after each reading, Tara Leigh taught me (and all her readers) to look for the “God Shot” – how God revealed Himself through that reading. Oh, friends, that changed everything! I trained myself to look for God’s character (even in places like Leviticus!). I began to understand who God is and how He spoke to His kids. I saw His lovingkindness to the brokenhearted. I saw His forgiving nature when His kids messed up and sinned. I saw His righteousness when dealing with sin and its consequences. I saw His grace to those who followed Him. And I saw His compassion for the downcast and those who struggled to get it right.

I got to know my God more than ever before – it was a game changer in my Bible reading and my relationship with Him. As my knowledge of God grew, something else happened that I didn’t expect: I began to trust Him more. And, the more I trusted Him, the more I began to sense when He was speaking to me.

In my experience, it hasn’t been a loud, thunderous voice that I imagine to be God’s. It’s a voice I hear inside my head, a voice that I often dismiss or mistake for my own. Sometimes, it’s a Bible verse that pops into my head. Sometimes, it’s lyrics to a Christian song I’ve been listening to. Sometimes, it’s a Bible story’s theme that God is impressing upon me: being brave, doing the right thing, walking by faith, or trusting Him. And always, He uses my life’s circumstances to speak to me about those principles.

But, it’s also there, on the pages of the Bible, that I hear Him the strongest. When I am hesitant in myself like Moses, when I want to have a heart like David’s or a faith like Daniel’s, or when I want to walk on water like Peter, God is there nudging me to move forward in faith, trusting Him. And when I still struggle to “get” what I am reading, there are “easy buttons” for me. I can hop online and change the translation. I can Google a commentary on whatever portion is tripping me up. Better yet, I can shoot my preacher a text (they geek out on stuff like this!) and ask for more insight. Oh yes, friends, reading your Bible is a journey to experiencing God in a whole new way.

Tara Leigh Cobble summed up this relationship well: “You can only trust someone you know. And you can only know someone you spend time with.”

Spending time with God in His Word helps you get to know Him. And, knowing God gives you a type of trust that when He called you out on the water, you can take that first step out of the boat knowing He’s there. He’s got you, just like He had His kids in the Bible. Oh yes, knowing God leads to good things in life, friends. It’s the joy we get amid the chaos. It’s the confidence we have when adversity strikes. It’s the strength from which we draw.

It’s what compels us to do the impossible and walk on water.

It’s worth it…because He’s worth it.