My Gerbal has a "Word from the Lord!"

"To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit." - David.

"The Lord told me blah, blah, blah... and blah." I can't calculate the ammount of times I've heard this in the past week. Christian conferences always seem to be a potent breeding ground for this phrase. Words from the Lord multiply like rabbits at big Christian conferences. So does my cynicism.

It's frustrating to me because I know there are times when God seems silent. And for me, it's almost always at Christian conferences. (By the way, I think that's kind of unfair God.)

So people casually saying they heard this and that from the "Spirit" can strike a really weird chord in my heart. It goes something like this: "twang." No it goes something like this: "Come on, you heard from the Lord again!? What, are you sure it's not just the double shot of caffeine you had this morning in your coffee? That's when I think I've heard from the Lord."

But we see here that David cried to God that he would not be deaf to him. So God does seem deaf, like he doesn't even hear us. And for me, specifically when everyone and their pet parrot are claiming to hear "A word from the Lord."

If God seemed deaf to David, I can feel a bit better about myself. God's still with me. Big sigh of relief. And I don't have to go into any deep introspection to figure out the sin that's constipated my spiritual life. (I'm reminded of the toilet Ernest unplugged in "Ernest goes to camp." What a visual!)

Does God go silent when we aren't living the holy, victorious, totally surrendered Christian life? I don't think so. He speaks. He rescues us in our deafness and sin. He hears our pleas.

You know how Jesus had God's ear. We do too in the exact same way. We forget that. It has something to do with our old sin nature and all that. But like the "Jesus Story Book Bible" says, the big sin is doubting that God really loves us.

So when everyone, their in-laws, pen-pals in the former Soviet Republic and pet gerbals are hearing from God and you aren't, don't just grow cynical like me. Rejoice in the FACT that God hears you even when it doesn't feel like it. David didn't feel it a lot, so you're in good company.