Sunday, January 18th: “Rise Up: Listen”
Modern Christians can identify with Samuel, who “didn’t yet know the Lord, and the Lord’s word hadn’t yet been revealed to him” (1 Samuel 3:7, CEB). Like Samuel, we’re often spiritually sleeping. We don’t fully sense the divinity around us. Exhaustion has so dulled our hearts, minds, and souls that we can work all day, but never hear God. That’s why we, like Samuel and Eli, need a community, to help us listen and hear God. We need another person who can be our Eli, another person who can be our Samuel. So that, when we’re blind with exhaustion, someone can open our eyes with a fresh word from the Spirit. And when we’re in brand new spiritual territory, spiritually sleeping, but being called by God to wake up, someone can teach us how to listen!