“Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” ~1 Samuel 3:1

Samuel was laying down when he thought he heard something. What was it? More specifically, whose voice was it? Was it Eli’s? No. Again he heard his name called. Who is calling now? Again, it was not Eli. Whose voice was it? One more time he hears his name called and one more time Eli says it is not his voice. Go lay down again, but be open to the possibility that the Lord is calling you. Sure enough, it was the Lord’s voice this whole time.

Maybe you feel as if the Lord’s word to you is going through a dry spell, as if it is in a drought. If so, may it come to you once again. But maybe the word of the Lord is not as rare as we think it is. Maybe we just confuse it with something else, or we decide to listen to someone else, or maybe the Lord continues to speak but we have stopped listening. Yet the word of the Lord still calls out to you and to me. When we attune our hearts and our hearing to the word of the Lord calling out to us, we get to say more than simply, “Here I am.” We also receive the blessing of the assurance that the Lord is still with us. May it be so.