When He Calls Your Name

I was tucking my grandchildren into bed. I could tell they were tiered by their big yawns and the way they were rubbing their eyes. As I got ready to pray for them I told them about when Samuel was a little boy lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was. I told them how God had called his name but because he didn't yet know the Lord and because the word of the Lord hadn't been revealed to him yet he didn't know who was calling him. Then I prayed that God would call their names and that they would know Him and that God would reveal His word to them.

Have you ever heard God call your name? Someone shyly told me this Summer that he had heard God call his name. I think that he was afraid of how I would respond. He had been pursuing God and longing for a deeper relationship. I wasn't surprised nor did I think it strange that God had called his name. The question I asked him was ,"Well, how did you respond?"

Samuel, however, wasn't pursuing God when he heard his name called. The Scripture says that he didn't yet know the Lord. The message God gave this young man was a hard one. Eli told Samuel to say, "Speak, for your servant hears," (Samuel 3:4) but the message God gave Samuel was about how Eli had not been listening to the Lord and how God was going to bring punishment on his house forever. Now that's a heavy message to wake a young man up with in the middle of the night!

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him." (1 John 5:14-15) With this confidence I lay my hands on the heads of my grandchildren and I ask that God will wake them up by calling them by name. I ask that He will reveal Himself to them through His Word. I also ask that God will take these children and give them the courage to speak the truth.

Lord Jesus, I too want to hear You call my name. Open my ears to hear, my eyes to see and please give me the courage to obey. Let my life be an example to my children and grandchildren of one who hears and obeys Your voice.