Lent: deepening our Prayer Lives
Week 4: Alive

Sermon Date: March 22nd
Reading: 1 Samuel 3 v.1-21

Icebreaker
Have you ever felt a call from God in your life? Has that resulted in your listening to God and becoming more alive in your prayer life? There is no right or wrong way to be, try to talk to the person next to you if it’s easier than speaking to the whole group.
Please read 1 Samuel 3 v.1-21 aloud

Study
Background: Samuel’s service is not entirely single-minded (verse 1) it is “under Eli” and the following account repeatedly demonstrates that Samuel is indeed under Eli -- dependent on his voice and, ultimately, his insight -- even as it also demonstrates that, after God’s call, Samuel will no longer be subservient to Eli. Instead, Eli will be dependent on Samuel for the word of the Lord (verse 17), and the same holds true for all of Israel (3:21-4:1).

Samuel lives in a precarious time when “the word of the LORD was rare” (verse 1). This is a continuation of the problem at the end of book of Judges where “all the people did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Indeed, 1 Samuel 2 speaks of how Eli’s own sons did what was right in their own eyes in their work as priests (1 Samuel 2:11-17). The times are as dark as the night that falls at the beginning of the story.

The boy, Samuel, is bedded down in the temple with the Ark of the Covenant while Eli slept in another room. The boy hears a voice calling and three times arises and goes to Samuel to ask what he wants. We know that it is God who is calling the boy, but he does not. Even Eli does not understand what is happening right away. Eventually however, Eli tells the boy to speak to the Lord.

Application: There are several lessons in this story. The first is the ease with which we may miss God’s call or voice or attribute it to someone else. Most people who speak of their call do not describe a major disruption in their lives. There are few Damascus Road experiences. Instead, they speak of a quiet, slow awakening to something, be that a life of a particular office in the church, an injustice that needs to be addressed, or a task that needs attention. Like Samuel, they often tell of a period of uncertainty about exactly what and why God is calling them. In addition, Samuel needed Eli to help him understand his call. It often takes others in our lives to aid us in understanding the call that God places before us. Part of our community of faith is to aid each other to see and live out our individual callings from God.
So, what Samuel does do after Eli guides him is to:
 
· Make himself available for God to speak (Go, lie down).
· Not be presumptuous about God speaking (if He calls you).
· Respond to the word of God (Speak, LORD).
· Humble himself before God and His word (Your servant hears).
 
Samuel listened and God taught him

Q. 1 do you relate to this very familiar story, have there been times when you have mis-understood but someone else has guided you to finally hearing what God was saying to you?

Q.2 how do we discern if it is God?

A deep sense of peace, fruit being born from what you have been called to, confirmation from a mentor, us becoming more humble etc.

Listening for and hearing/sensing God's leading can seem overwhelming. It is a relationship with God that we seek, not an audible voice. God’s voice within will guide us, however, becoming still and making ourselves ready is key.

Q.3 how do you intentionally ‘listen to God’?

A.W. Tozer wrote a powerful book called, The Pursuit of God (1948), still valuable today for those passionate to know Him. Tozer cites a wide variety of Christian leaders, and then asks, what vital quality ties them together?

"I venture to suggest that the one vital quality which they had in common was spiritual receptivity. Something in them was open to heaven, something which urged them Godward.... They had spiritual awareness and ...they went on to cultivate it until it became the biggest thing in their lives. They differed from the average person in that when they felt the inward longing they did something about it. They acquired the lifelong habit of spiritual response.... Receptivity is ...an affinity for, a bent toward, a sympathetic response to, a desire to have.’’
Developing a relationship with God comes before seeking to hear God's voice, because a relationship is based on trust. And trusting God is necessary or we won't follow through with all that life might throw at us.

Q.4 do you find it hard to trust others?

Q.5 how have you trusted God in your own life?

When Jesus moves beyond feeding multitudes with bread, and speaks of people eating his own flesh and drinking his blood, "many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." Those who stayed, remained because of a relationship, a receptivity to Jesus. "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:66-68).
Hearing God's voice flows out of a relationship. It is wed to our life of prayer; that makes us alive before God.

Q.5 do you feel alive when you pray?

The fruit of developing a trusting relationship with God is born out of reading scripture, prayer, gathering with others, worship, faithfulness and commitment. If we are to have prayer lives that are alive and help us to deepen as disciples on our faith journeys, we also have to decide honestly how we will do this.

Q.6 what might you do differently in the light of Samuel’s story and in sharing with each other today?

Action

Good listening reflects our relationship with God.

‘’Our inability to listen well to others may be symptomatic of a chatty spirit that is droning out the voice of God. Bonhoeffer warns, if you can no longer listen to your brother or sister you will soon be no longer listening to God either; you will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life. . . . Anyone who thinks that their time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and their brother and sisters, but only for themselves.’’

Harsh words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer but if we are honest with ourselves, so true.

Good listening is a great means of grace in the dynamic of true Christian fellowship. Not only is it a channel through which God continues to pour his grace into our lives, but it’s also his way of using us as his means of grace in the lives of others. It may be one of the hardest things we learn to do, but we will find it worth every ounce of effort, if we are willing to do it.

Q. 7 how are we going to change, what will we do to become more open to ‘listening’ and deepening our relationship with God?

Spend time practicing stillness and listening to God, get a prayer partner, so you can do this together. Try praying in different ways, take up some of the opportunities that the church offers. Read books that are broader in there spirituality, gather knowledge and discern God’s will for you within it. If all else fails, pray regularly and faithfully, sometimes not saying words but stopping and listening.

Prayer
Choose one of these prayers to close with:

1. Father, I ask for quietness of mind and spirit, which reflects the stillness in the heart of God, as a calm sea reflects the moon. Enable me Lord, to hear the still, small voice of eternity, speaking through the sounds of time. So, that I may dwell in your peace and be one with your love, we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
2. Lord, let my life be a space in which you can work in the world. Clear away my inner rubbish, and fill me with your Spirit of healing, delight and peace, so that everything I do may be the fruit of your life in me. Amen 
3. Jesus, help me to listen to your voice within, to act as your direct me and to be faithful and committed to all you call me to be. Amen.

 
Sharon Seal