Tuesday 17, Jan 2017 - Practice Makes Perfect

You shall walk after the Lord your God and [reverently] fear Him . . . and obey His voice. . . .
—Deuteronomy 13:4 

Once we begin listening to and hearing from God, it is important to obey whatever we hear Him say. Obedience increases our quality of fellowship with Him and strengthens our faith.
We might say, "Practice makes perfect" when it comes to hearing and obeying Him. In other words, we become more and more confident as we gain experience.
It takes a lot of practice to reach the point of complete submission to God's leading. Even knowing that God's ways are perfect and that His plans always work, we still feign ignorance sometimes when He asks us to do something that requires personal sacrifice, or we might even be afraid that we are not hearing clearly and therefore become too cautious to take action.
Don't be fearful of sacrifice or of making a mistake. There are many things in life that are worse than being wrong. Jesus said, "Follow Me." I firmly believe that when we have done our best to hear from God, then we must "step out and find out," if we truly are hearing His voice or not. Shrinking back in fear all of our lives will never allow us to make progress in our ability to hear from God.
He did not say, "You take the lead, and I will follow you." I have learned that we may as well do quickly whatever God says, because if we don't, I can guarantee that we will be miserable.
When our children are learning how to walk, we don't get angry when they fall down. We realize they are learning and we work with them. God is the same way and He will teach you how to hear from Him if you walk in faith and not fear.