Recognizing His Voice

“At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him yet.” (1 Samuel 3:7)

In today’s reading Samuel is learning to recognize the Lord’s voice. One thing about Samuel is that he was open. When he heard himself being called he did not hesitate. He thought it was Eli calling him and immediately went to him and said, “Here I am” not what do you want? or why are you calling me? Or even ignoring it altogether like we sometimes do. When Eli realized that it was the Lord calling Samuel, he taught him the proper way to answer God. “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.”

When discerning the will of God we have to first learn to recognize his voice. In his homily today, the priest mentioned that the reason a shepherd carries the lamb on his shoulders is because he breaks one of the lamb’s legs so that it cannot run away. While the lamb is on the shepherd’s shoulders, it listens to the shepherd talking to the sheep and learns to recognize his shepherd’s voice. When the lamb’s leg heals he no longer runs off because he recognizes his shepherd’s voice.  I found this to be beautiful. Sometimes it is only when I am “crippled” that I pay attention to God.

Once we learn to recognize God’s voice we have to make sure we can hear it. We have to learn to block out all the distractions in our lives and make time to sit before the Lord and listen to him. We need to make ourselves available to him.  Sometimes it is hard to discern if what we are hearing is God because the devil often makes things appealing, to attract our attention. But if something is true then it will stand firm. Truth is never a fleeting thing. It took three times for Eli to realize that it was the Lord speaking to Samuel. When I am faced with something that I am not sure what God is trying to reveal to me in that situation, instead of reacting quickly, I have to take time and rest in it. When I do this, I always find peace. I may not know why God is placing this before me or even if I will ever know, but I do know that with Him I can bear all things.