God has a message for you. just you.

​I listen to several sermons a week. I listen to a lot of Christian music. I listen to many faith-filled messages aimed at the world that don't often settle in the heart of me as if they were spoken just for me.

Messages that have plenty of meaning, yet at the same time don't often change my life. At least not the kind of change that happens when I hear God speak directly to me.

Today, I understand better than ever what those sermons and songs do best, at least the really good ones; they make sure I'm hearing the right messages when I sit and listen to God.

And that's a really important step. Sitting and listening to God. It's hard to hear what God only wants to tell you when you don't ever ask God to tell you what he only wants to tell you.

Too often our conversations with God are restricted to us telling God what we think he needs to hear from us.

Have you ever thought about this. God will always know what you want to tell him even if you never say a word. But we will never have any earthly idea what God wants to tell us if we don't stop and ask him, what do you want to tell me?

If we never stop to ask God what he wants to tell us, we will never hear:

You need to stop beating yourself up, because I have. In fact I never did.

I like you, I like you so much more than you like you.

I love to read what you write. Or hear what you sing. I just love your voice.

I am grateful you enjoy the mountains, I created them just for you.

Yes, I know, I am God, but I can feel gratitude too.

You know, good leaders can make the whole team feel important in a leadership team meeting. They deliver a message that inspires and unites the whole team. But the best leaders spend time with the individuals on the team, making sure they know they are valued.

And why they are valued.

God is inviting us into that individual meeting every second of every day. God is sitting there, heart wide open, anxious to make sure we know just what he sees in us and just how much he treasures it all.

Too often our prayers start with an effort to get God's attention, to draw God into a space of hearing what we long to say.

And there's a time for that. For sure.

But sometimes what we really need most is to enter the space God is inviting us into. The space where we just sit and hear his voice.

A voice that will always say, I really like you.

I like you and I'm thankful you gave me just a few moments of quiet to tell you that.

God's voice is always powerful. It's most powerful when we hear him say what he only wants to say to us.