In my experience, concrete moments of complete clarity are rare. 

I can remember exactly when and where I was, when I first thought that a good friend named Natalie (my wife now of 35 years) was someone I could share the rest of my life with.  Took me 6 weeks to muster up the courage to ask her out on a date, but I knew, in that moment.  

There are a few other moments in my life like that, rare moments of complete clarity that seem to come from out of the blue.  In hindsight, I can see they are the culmination of months, or even years, of conscious and subconscious of “tumbling things around” as I like to say. 

Clarity when it comes to the call or will of God, sometimes seems agonizingly elusive. But one thing I’ve come to know is that this elusiveness comes more as a result of me and my actions rather than of God. In fact, God is relentlessly resolved to break through and be heard. 

Just ask Samuel.

In the story found in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel 3, God calls out to Samuel three times, waking the young boy up in the early morning hours. The boy’s spiritual mentor, the priest Eli, finally recognizes it’s God who’s waking Samuel up.  Eli’s advice?  The next time that happens, say “Speak. Your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10, CEB). 

When God called out as before, “Speak. Your servant is listening,” came Samuel’s response.  Then God shares with great clarity, a “ear tingling” new thing that’s about to happen!  Click here to listen to more (June 14 sermon).  

Receiving clarity from God, seems to go hand-in-hand with our desire to really listen for God speaking into our life. So, take a cue from Samuel and use his sentence prayer to sincerely make the time and space in life to clearly hear from God… “Speak. For your servant is listening.”