Can God Really Help You?

Have you ever picked up the telephone, heard a voice say “Hi, it’s me” and had no idea who it was? Most people have found themselves in this position at some time. I usually keep talking and hope I will work out who it is before long. I don’t know why I don’t just say “I’m sorry, who did you say it was?” I suppose it is because whoever it is must know me well enough to think that they don’t have to say their name and I don’t want to upset them by admitting that I don’t know who they are.

The question I want to ask you is this; if you picked up the telephone and it was God saying “Hi, it’s me”, would you recognise his voice? Would you know that it was God if he called you?

Okay maybe God won’t actually telephone you, but he does call regularly. Most people would love to hear from God. What they don’t realise is that he is speaking to them all the time. The problem is that either they are not listening or they do not recognise his voice.

The first problem of not listening arises for two reasons:
  • The general busyness of life crowds out God’s voice. If you are going to answer the telephone you generally need to hear it ringing. I’ve missed many telephone calls in my life simply because I didn’t hear it ringing, for example when in the shower, vacuuming or listening to loud music or television. We often miss God’s voice because life is too loud. There are too many other voices and sounds clamouring for our attention.
  • Sometimes the telephone rings and we don’t answer it because we know who it is and we don’t want to speak to them. It’s the same with God; sometimes we don’t actually want to listen to him. This is usually the case when we know that we are doing, or are about to do, something that is out of line with his word. We deliberately shut out his voice.

The second problem is that we simply do not recognise his voice. The main reason for this is that we do not know him well enough. The Bible tells us that God’s sheep will hear his voice;

      “The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” John 10:2-4

Sheep will follow their shepherd’s voice because they know it well. A shepherd spends all his time looking after his sheep. They are very familiar with him. This scripture goes on to say that they will not follow a stranger’s voice;

      “But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.” John 10:5

We are supposed to follow the voice of our shepherd and run from the stranger’s voice. Unfortunately we are prone to do the opposite. We are not familiar enough with the shepherd, but far more familiar with the stranger’s voice, who speaks to us through the many voices clamouring to shut out God. Often it is a case of the blind leading the blind. Many well meaning people are only too ready to tell you what they think God is saying, when they themselves do not recognise his voice.

God does sometimes speak to us through other people, but it is not his preferred method. He prefers to speak to us directly, either through his word or through his spirit.

God is speaking to you all the time. If you want to recognise his voice then you have to get to know him and understand his character. God is a good and loving God who wants nothing more than for us to have a blessed and happy life. He did not create us to be miserable. Jesus said that he came so that we might have an abundant life, but there is a thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. We listen to the thief (Satan) far too much and in doing so we allow him to steal, kill and destroy our lives.

We are told in the Bible that God created us in his own image;

      “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

The problem is, we get this a bit backward, and we start creating God in our image. Remember the childhood game where you could make a face by choosing the hair, eyes, nose, and ears and so on. We treat God like that. So often we create our own God, rather than getting to know the real God of the Bible. We decide on God’s views for him, what he thinks, whether he minds about something and what he thinks about other people. We reason out his actions and his powers. This is usually closely related to our views, taking into account the fact that we are very advanced, living in the 21st century as we do! Unfortunately these views are strongly influenced by the media and the people who speak out the loudest and most forcefully.

When we create anything, we either let our imagination run wild or we draw on our experiences, or a combination of both. When we create our own God we do it through a combination of our imagination and our experiences of people. So often we create our God based on the people we know, either personally or through the media.

Let me tell you some of the characteristics of the God I had created. My God existed and I believed that when I died he was going to decide whether I went to heaven or hell, depending on my belief in Jesus. My God wanted me to go to church and pray, but he didn’t really notice if I didn’t. My God was all powerful, but he didn’t actually use that power very much, for example he could heal if he wanted to, but he tended not to. My God wanted me to be a good person and be nice to people, but he didn’t understand how hard it was or how difficult other people could be. My God wanted as many people as possible to go to heaven, so it was important that in some way I contributed to spreading the gospel, then he would be pleased and approve of me. My God was upset that people treated each other badly, that there were wars and starving millions. My God could intervene in these tragedies, but didn’t. I wasn’t quite sure why My God didn’t help people but because he was mine and I had created him I had to explain this and make excuses for him, after all I didn’t want people thinking badly about My God. My God was important and deserved to be recognised and respected so I was angry if people ignored him or spoke against him. I was also annoyed if people had a different God that they thought was better than My God.

Here’s the thing about My God. Even though he was my God, because I had created him, he wasn’t actually a personal, friendly and helpful God. He didn’t have much time for me, because he had so much else going on. Actually, I agreed with this. I had a lot going on in my own life anyway. I was a busy working mother, so I didn’t have a lot of spare time for My God, and let’s face it; he had even more to do than me (hard to believe I know!), so he needed to get on with it. If I stopped to think about it, which I tried not to too often, I felt very guilty about all the unfortunate people in the world. I had enough food to eat (too much in fact), My God needed to go and help those who didn’t. If I took up any of My God’s time with my problems, then he would have less time to help those who really needed him. My problems were so small and insignificant compared to the bigger problems going on in the world, it seemed weak and pathetic, even ungrateful, to bother My God with them. Surely I was capable of sorting things out myself. I just needed to be better organised and have more self control.

I lived many years with My God, until one day he wasn’t enough anymore. I was miserable, despite appearing to have so much going for me. Somewhere, in the midst of my misery, the real God broke through and started to reveal himself to me. It was a journey over many years, during which I spent a lot of time reading the Bible and praying. I began to discover the real God, the God of the Bible. I began to build a relationship with him.

I had made many mistakes when I created My God, but the biggest mistake was that I had made him too small. The real God is a great big God. He is not limited in his thoughts or actions; he has enough time and love for all of us. It is because he is such a big God that he cares about every single detail of our lives.

Yes, there are wars going on. Yes, there are millions of people starving in the world. But, when God looks at these things he doesn’t see a war or a starving village. God sees individuals who are hurting. His heart aches for every individual involved in the war, whatever side they are on. God loves the murderer as much as the victim. His heart aches for every individual that doesn’t have enough food to eat or water to drink.

God loves every person on earth with an equal passionate love. His heart aches equally for the rich, overfed, miserable westerner as it does for the starving refugee.

God loves you. Yes he does! He cares deeply and passionately about you. He is trying to speak to you all the time and is desperate for you to recognise his voice.

Do you want to hear from God? Do you want to recognise his voice? If the answer is yes, then it’s time to get to know him. You have to lay down your created God and get to know the real one. You do this by spending time with him, reading his word, praying, worshiping or simply sitting quietly with him. Once you start shutting out the noise of the world, you will begin to hear God. He will reveal himself to you and you will begin to recognise his voice. You will know God’s voice because it comes with peace. God is good and he is loving. If the voice you hear is not these things, then it isn’t God. God is not the voice of judgement and condemnation. His voice should not bring fear or dread. These things are the voice of the thief. Don’t listen to them.

Concentrate on getting to know the real God and next time he calls and says “Hi, it’s me”, you can say “Hi, it’s great to hear from you”.