Speak, for your servant hears

1 Sam. 3:10, 21 “And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant hears.’ . . . And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.”

Neither Eli nor his sons, all priests, wanted to hear from God. Therefore, God decided to be silent. Samuel, however, determined to listen to and hear God's voice. “Speak for your servant hears.” This should be our prayer each time we open God’s word. 

We should want to hear God’s voice in the Bible—from the Bible—every time we open its pages. Bible reading should  never be merely routine. We do not read the Bible as we do other books, for entertainment or information. We read to hear God speak to us, to direct us, to give us orders, to comfort us, to encourage us, to correct us, to love us. Hearing God’s word is meant to transform us more into the very image of Christ! 

Because Samuel will hear God’s voice, therefore, “the Lord appeared again at Shiloh.” He appeared through his word. “The LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.” Today the Lord appears to us through his word. If we will have ears to hear. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15). 

Do we want to be like Samuel in our day? Are we willing to say to God, “Speak, for your servant hears”? Can we say to God: “Speak from your word, I will receive your word, submit to it myself, living it, and will declare to others all that you say. Pleasant or difficult, my Father, whatever pleases you, wherever and whenever it pleases you, Lord, I will be your herald.”

May the Lord appear again where you live, by the word of the Lord. Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.