As part of doing Personal Progress for church, I read the book God's Many Voices for the Faith project. I just wrote this reflection on the book.
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For my project, I chose to read "God's Many Voices" by Liz Ditty a woman I used to work with at Tellme. In her book, Liz shares many ideas regarding how we can learn to listen God's messages to us through lots of different methods and mediums that we may not normally consider and that we can become expectant to hear his voice knowing that God loves and cares about us. In the forward to the book, John Ortberg says "the central promise of the Bible is not 'I will forgive you' the best promise in the Bible is 'I will be with you'."
I especially liked statements like:
"Are you looking for God, or are you looking for answers?"
"It's possible to seek God's voice but not seek God."
"We have to move only toward Him and His love, not toward His wisdom or blessing or direction."
"This story that we find ourselves in now is not our quest to find God, but His quest to be found by us."
"We don't listen to God's voice so we can know the answers we listen so we can know *Him*."
"The promises I made for Lent were made *to* Christ, but they weren't made *for* Him."
"Jesus said, 'If you love me, you will keep my commandments John 1415 ESV. Do you see how love comes first? Obedience isn't our gateway to love it's our response to God's love."
"Asking the Holy Spirit to help us enter a conversation with God, we have to desire most of all His company, not what feelings He can give us or what answers He might have to our pressing questions. After all, silence can be the sound of two people who are happy simply being together."
"It is less important to us to *know* God's will than it is for us to *want* God's will."
"God's will is more often about who we are than what we do."
"God calls us to relationship before He calls us to action."
"Instead of praying, 'God, make it better', I need to pray, 'God, make it count'."
"One way we learn the dependability of God is by trusting Him to give us exactly what we need for today."
"It's not difficult to live the Christian life alone. It's impossible."
"He wants us to live our whole lives with Him, in a constant awareness of His presence and love."
"Each of our dark emotions is on a thread that connects us to something deeper we may not be aware of jealousy reveals desire, fear reveals insecurity, anger reveals pain."
"My faith doesn't have to be enough. Your goodness is always enough. Thank you."
"True worship is being willing to be interrupted."
"Seasons remind us to *expect change*, and God whispers, 'Your right now is not your forever."
"May we create more than just an image *of* God's glory. May we create *as* God's image and *to* His glory."
"Worship isn't just complimenting God it's wanting God. It's acknowledging that His ways and His understanding are greater than our own - not just saying so but by aligning the details and decisions of our lives with that truth. It's investing in our relationship with God and His way of life."
"My life, simply lived loving God, is my foundational act of worship."
"But God doesn't want us to give Him our desires and cringe at the thought of what He might give us in return. He wants to *be* our desire. He also wants us to be the kind of people who want and who love good things, who deeply love Him ... 'Your will not mine' has always been a statement of trust and hope, of believing in God's good plan rather than dreading it. God wants us to desire His will because we believe He is good, His gifts are good, and His plans are good."
"God has searched my desires many times now. He is teaching me to want good things, like working with Him and not just serving Him."
"It's possible to seek God's voice but not seek God."
"We have to move only toward Him and His love, not toward His wisdom or blessing or direction."
"This story that we find ourselves in now is not our quest to find God, but His quest to be found by us."
"We don't listen to God's voice so we can know the answers we listen so we can know *Him*."
"The promises I made for Lent were made *to* Christ, but they weren't made *for* Him."
"Jesus said, 'If you love me, you will keep my commandments John 1415 ESV. Do you see how love comes first? Obedience isn't our gateway to love it's our response to God's love."
"Asking the Holy Spirit to help us enter a conversation with God, we have to desire most of all His company, not what feelings He can give us or what answers He might have to our pressing questions. After all, silence can be the sound of two people who are happy simply being together."
"It is less important to us to *know* God's will than it is for us to *want* God's will."
"God's will is more often about who we are than what we do."
"God calls us to relationship before He calls us to action."
"Instead of praying, 'God, make it better', I need to pray, 'God, make it count'."
"One way we learn the dependability of God is by trusting Him to give us exactly what we need for today."
"It's not difficult to live the Christian life alone. It's impossible."
"He wants us to live our whole lives with Him, in a constant awareness of His presence and love."
"Each of our dark emotions is on a thread that connects us to something deeper we may not be aware of jealousy reveals desire, fear reveals insecurity, anger reveals pain."
"My faith doesn't have to be enough. Your goodness is always enough. Thank you."
"True worship is being willing to be interrupted."
"Seasons remind us to *expect change*, and God whispers, 'Your right now is not your forever."
"May we create more than just an image *of* God's glory. May we create *as* God's image and *to* His glory."
"Worship isn't just complimenting God it's wanting God. It's acknowledging that His ways and His understanding are greater than our own - not just saying so but by aligning the details and decisions of our lives with that truth. It's investing in our relationship with God and His way of life."
"My life, simply lived loving God, is my foundational act of worship."
"But God doesn't want us to give Him our desires and cringe at the thought of what He might give us in return. He wants to *be* our desire. He also wants us to be the kind of people who want and who love good things, who deeply love Him ... 'Your will not mine' has always been a statement of trust and hope, of believing in God's good plan rather than dreading it. God wants us to desire His will because we believe He is good, His gifts are good, and His plans are good."
"God has searched my desires many times now. He is teaching me to want good things, like working with Him and not just serving Him."
There is a good exercise/example on pages 54-55 of the book in terms of taking a single scripture and really understanding all of its implications - in this case, "I sought the Lord, and he answered me he delivered me from all my fears." Aside in NYC on a business trip, I experienced for myself her couch example on page 37. Later pg 63, she says "I entered into the story as best I could".
Also liked "the idea of internal furniture" with regard to how we might have a personality clash with certain people. "We all have a sort of arrangement of furniture in our minds. We've arranged it so it feels like our own comfortable home. We have reasons for the size, shape, and order of things, reasons that are all very personal. When we interact with people, it can be like letting them into our living room. Sometimes it's nice to visit with them there, but some people come in and kick their feet up where we don't want them to, or leave their muddy boots on, or actually pick up a chair and move it to the other side of the room and say, 'That's better.' As the host we have to choose how we respond." Later, it says "God gently speaks to us about our character when we are annoyed, offended, hurt, or angry with each other. Every time someone kicks our furniture, we have an invitation to make our lives a home for Christ instead of a museum for ourselves."
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