God's Echo

Have you ever listened to your voice echo? I remember standing between our house and the neighbors with friends and shouting to each other. We did this not because we were angry with each other, but just to hear our voices echo as the sound would bounce off the sides of our houses.

An echo is the repetition any sound caused by the reflection of sound waves bouncing repeatedly off a surface. As you know the sound of an echo diminishes with each repetition until the sound can no longer be heard.

This week you could say that I heard God’s voice echo. Only each time I heard it God’s voice grew louder! I think the Lord wanted to get my attention, and He finally did.

As usual I began preparing for the Sunday sermon on Thursday. I believe God spoke to my heart directing me to preach a series of messages on the topic of blessing in preparation for Thanksgiving, so I followed the leading of the Lord and put together an outline and then manuscript of the sermon I preached last Sunday. In my time of study I became convinced that God wanted us to know that we are blessed. The intensity of this grew as I spoke; I heard God’s voice echo through the services, “We are blessed.”

On the following Tuesday I was at a pastor’s prayer meeting. As we concluded our time of prayer we were directed to go and pray a prayer of blessing over other pastors who were there. As I prayed with one of my friends I felt the Lord tell me to share with him what I had learned about the word bless. God’s voce echoed again, but louder, “We are blessed.”

I shared with my friend the three words used in the Bible that are translated bless.

• The first word “barak” literally means “to kneel” as before a king or sovereign to receive something such as a reward, promotion or honor.
• The second word “eulego” means to speak well of a person or call upon God for a blessing; this is a compound word using the Greek word “logos” which means word, so the emphasis of this word is upon the spoken word of blessing.
• The third word “makarios” literally means supremely blessed, fortunate, well off, blessed and happy; this is a blessing that is not affected by circumstances but is an absolute reality.

I told my friend, “We have knelt before God and he has spoken His word of blessing over our lives. God’s word is never empty, so we are supremely blessed regardless of what may happen in our lives from day to day.” God’s voice was echoing loudly.

On Thursday I attended a pastor’s conference with Pastor Jack Hayford. That evening his message was a word of encouragement. He preached from Genesis 12:1-3 in which God blessed Abram (this text also just happened to be one of the primary references I used the previous Sunday). Pastor Jack’s message concluded his message saying, “God wants you to know, the deal is still on.” I heard God’s voice echo again even more loudly we are blessed!

I finally understood that God did not just want to communicate to the people of the church or others that we are blessed. God wanted me to know that I am blessed. Thank you Lord for being willing to echo your voice until I finally really heard you.