Psalm 95 declares: “We are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.” God wants to care for us, and his primary way of doing this is not by giving us things but by speaking to us and guiding us as a shepherd guides his sheep. Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). The most important way in which we must respond to God is to listen to his voice. The failure of Israel to do this in the desert after they came out of Egypt (Numbers 13-14) meant that they wandered in the desert for the rest of their lives. Psalm 95 warns us that we too will be like that generation if we fail to heed God’s voice. God is always speaking to us. We have God’s word in the Bible, but we also have the presence of the Holy Spirit speaking within us. Then God also speaks to us through other people, external things and circumstances. He is even speaking to us constantly through creation itself (Psalm 19:1-4). God is constantly speaking through everything in some sense, and we must learn to engage with his conversation. Prayer is a matter of responding to what God is saying and doing. We may feel at times that God is giving us the silent treatment, but that is often because we haven’t been willing to listen to the last thing that he tried to tell us. God is speaking to you all the time. Be more aware of that. He has started the conversation; it is for you now to respond.
Reflect on what God has been saying to you lately. Ask him to help you listen to and act upon what he is saying.
Read Psalm 95
