{"id":11009,"date":"2025-10-17T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/?p=11009"},"modified":"2025-10-10T17:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T16:44:07","slug":"bible-and-mission-samuel-listening-to-gods-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/10\/17\/bible-and-mission-samuel-listening-to-gods-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible and Mission. Samuel. Listening to God\u2019s Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

A vocation is always an initiative of God, who calls us by name. But as Samuel did, we must listen, take His word to heart, and transform what we have heard into a life commitment, a mission.<\/em><\/p>\n

God knows us by name, He calls us! But we don\u2019t always understand what He wants from us, what He\u2019s calling us to because we go through dramatic situations! We need to get to know God, to listen to Him, to understand what He expects of us, what He asks of us. Like Samuel, God comes to us and calls us! Understanding God\u2019s voice implies openness, realizing that God loves us and wants us well, that He invites us to holiness.<\/p>\n

Despite serving the Lord in the temple, Samuel didn\u2019t know His voice! How often God calls us and challenges us, but we don\u2019t know; we\u2019re not ready to listen to Him. There are so many distractions\u2013family life, work, friends, our moments of rest\u2013that we\u2019re so absorbed by so many commitments that there\u2019s no room for God in our lives.<\/p>\n

But God is there! Even though Samuel didn\u2019t realize that God was calling him, the Lord kept calling and didn\u2019t give up until Samuel understood His voice. God doesn\u2019t give up on you or me! After realizing that God was speaking to him, Samuel\u2019s response was clear and assertive: \u201cSpeak, Lord, and your servant will listen\u201d (1 Samuel 3:10). His life became one of service and dedication to God, making him an extremely important prophet.<\/p>\n

We need to stop! We need to \u201cwaste time\u201d to meet God, to understand the Lord\u2019s will. Samuel met God in the temple, in the silence, in the night. We need spaces in our lives to welcome Him, to pray, to read God\u2019s word, for intimate encounters with God, where we tell Him about our lives, our problems and our joys, where we let off steam when we don\u2019t understand Him. Samuel\u2019s testimony should serve as an example to us all.<\/p>\n

When we listen to God, when we realize the vocation to which we are called, we must follow God, who doesn\u2019t treat us as just one more, who doesn\u2019t consider us dispensable, but a loving God who knows each one by name and who is capable of keeping ninety-nine sheep and going in search of one lost sheep (Matthew 18:10-14, Luke 15:4-7). Being called and loved by God is a marvelous gift you and I have received!<\/p>\n

Listening attentively to God gives rise to an intimacy with Him in our hearts that allows us to live and serve the Lord in our lives with simplicity, generosity, and authenticity. Living God to the full does not mean that we will stop sinning, that we will only have qualities, or that we are perfect beings. Living God implies knowing Him, experiencing Him, loving Him, and knowing that despite our limitations and imperfections, God loves us and never gives up on us.<\/p>\n

In Samuel\u2019s vocation, it is extremely important to understand the role of Anna, his mother, and Eli, the priest. His mother offered the child to God, full of confidence that God\u2019s love is the greatest gift we can have, a love so great that He gives His life for us! A mother wants the best for her son, she wants him well. Samuel was God\u2019s gift to his mother, so she gave him to God, fulfilling her promise to the Lord.<\/p>\n

In the same way, Eli helped Samuel to hear and understand God\u2019s voice; with his wisdom, he was a true spiritual companion for the young Samuel. A vocation is a unique and personal gift. Yet God continually uses others to speak to us. We need to live God in community, in our communities where we identify ourselves as brothers and sisters in the faith; we need to be a light for others and help those who pass us by to encounter God; we need to witness to God by our example; we need to see God in others, in their examples, in their lives. (Pedro Nascimento) \u2013 (Illustration: 123rf)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A vocation is always an initiative of God, who calls us by name. But as Samuel did, we must listen, take His word to heart, and transform what we have heard into a life commitment, a mission. God knows us by name, He calls us! But we don\u2019t always understand what He wants from us, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}