Listening to God’s Leading

Once, as G. Keller worked on a sermon with particular intensity, an inner restlessness suddenly seized him. He could not shake this sense, and so, that Saturday evening he didn’t know whether he was to preach this message that Sunday. As he took the streetcar from his home to the meeting place, he felt an inexplicable urge to discard the text and sermon.  Instead, he was led to preach about Psalm 39, that one should not be angry with one’s neighbor and give free reign to angry words. 

The following week, an unknown gentleman entered his study and thanked him with a warm handshake for the sermon of last Sunday. With an emotional voice, the stranger told how he had been so angry with a business friend that he wrote a letter that would have put an abrupt end to a longstanding relationship. But before mailing the fateful letter, an irresistible power drove him to the service where he heard that sermon. It made such an impact on him that he no longer found the courage to send the angry letter.

“This morning,” the merchant explained, “a letter arrived from my business friend, who straightened everything out. That is why I had to rush here to thank you, who was without knowledge of my anger, for becoming God’s instrument to save me from a making a rash and harmful decision.”

We can easily imagine that Keller was greatly moved by this confession. More than ever before, he paid close attention to the inner voice of his heart: “Speak Lord, for Your servant hears!” (1. Samuel 3:9) Let us do likewise, for no one is too insignificant to be God’s obedient servant!

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