Speak, Lord

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 149, Speak, Lord.

And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant hears." First Samuel, chapter three, verse ten.

Sit with that for a moment. The LORD came. And stood. And called by name. Not to a crowd, not to a generation, not to "whoever is listening." He said: Samuel. Samuel. Twice — the way you say someone's name when you need them to really hear you.

And here is what that means for you today. God knows your name. Not the name of humanity in the abstract, not the name of believers in general — yours. With everything you're carrying, everything you've been through, every question that still doesn't have an answer. He is calling you.

But look at where Samuel was when the call came. He was sleeping near the ark — close to the place of God's presence. That was no accident. If you want to hear God speak, you position yourself where He speaks. And today that looks like something ordinary and intentional: opening the Word, carving out a moment of prayer, guarding that space before the noise of the day fills everything up.

What moves me most about this story is what happened before verse ten. Samuel heard that voice three times — and three times he ran to Eli, convinced it was the old priest calling him. Three times. And that was not a failure in Samuel. That was the beginning of learning. Recognizing the voice of God is not something you master overnight. It is something you grow into — with time, with attention, with the humility to say you're still in the process. If you've ever thought you heard God and gotten it wrong — don't be discouraged. Samuel got it wrong too. What mattered was that he kept coming back, kept staying close, kept making himself available.

And when Eli finally understood what was happening, he gave Samuel the exact words he needed: "If He calls again, say — Speak, Lord, for your servant hears." And that is precisely what Samuel did. He didn't arrive with a list of requests. He didn't come with an agenda. He came as a servant. Open. Available. Before he heard a single word, he had already taken the right posture.

And that is the heart of everything here. Prayer is not only speaking — it is making room for God to answer. We fill our prayers with words and urgency and need, and sometimes we walk away without having heard anything. Not because God didn't speak. But because we didn't leave silence enough to hear Him. Those who listen first act with far more clarity. Those who wait for an answer before they run — they walk with more steadiness, more peace, more purpose.

So here is your call for today. Before breakfast — before your phone, before your messages, before the day gets loud — sit down. Two minutes. That's all. Close your eyes, breathe, and say quietly or in your heart: "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears." And then — be still. And write down what comes. It might be a word, it might be a memory, it might simply be peace settling in. Write it down. Because God is speaking. The question is whether we are positioned to hear.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.