BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY: ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (Jeremiah 33:3)
The Joy of Being Heard
By Karrilee Aggett
When God first directed my attention to this verse, I was a fairly new believer. I was new to the Bible and learning how to study it. I was new to prayer and the discipline of praying. I was new to being a wife and the learning curve of being a new mother was overwhelming! In other words, I was tired, y’all!
Suddenly, for too many consecutive nights, my eyes popped open wide at exactly 3:33 a.m. The family was soundly sleeping. The house calm and quiet. What I wanted more than anything was to stay in bed, turn over, and go back to dreaming.
However, I don’t believe in coincidence and waking at the same time for days and days in a row certainly must mean something. As silly as it sounded, my heart knew it was true.
I made my way out to the living room, grabbed my Bible and sat down, ready to pray. Surely, this was a God-moment and maybe –just maybe, He had something to say to me!
Groggily, I whisper-prayed, “Here I am, Lord! I am listening…”
I waited in the silence and tried not to fall asleep. When I didn’t hear a response, I began my explanation of how there must be a better time to want to talk! That is when He led me to open my Bible and look up Jeremiah 33:3. When I read over verse three, all of my tired emotions welled up and began to spill out.
Oh, what a promise! “Call to Me, and I will answer you…”
That promise still takes my breath away! It was the beginning of falling in love with prayer. As a new mother way back then, the promise that He would not only hear me, but answer me was like a drink of cold water for my parched and thirsty soul!
I love how The Message states the latter part of that verse:
“I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.”
Marvelous and wondrous things… Yes, please!
Maybe you, too, are parched and thirsty and needing a bit of reassurance this God to whom we pray hears and listens and better yet, He answers!
Call to Him… and He will answer you…
This is the beginning of learning the JOY of being heard!
We want to experience God through the Bible… we really do!
But our good intentions fall flat when reading the Bible just doesn’t seem to help us experience God in a real way. What should feel alive often feels confusing and boring and irrelevant. But it doesn’t have to.
In the How to Study the Bible podcast, pastor and Bible teacher Nicole Unice brings life back to reading the Bible by walking listeners through her Alive Method of Bible study, helping us personally encounter God through his Word by giving us a practical, clear road map for understanding, interpreting and applying Scripture to our lives. Just click below to start listening now!
