"Yellow Car!"

My family likes to play games.  Usually these are board games or various types of tabletop games.  "Sheriff of Nottingham", "Munchkin" a few others.  But what does a family do when they can't play games and have a 40 minute ride to church?  Enter car games!

So there is one game in particular that is always being played.  It started out as "Yellow Car"  you see a yellow car, you yell out "Yellow car!", you get a point.  Pretty simple.  If you tied with someone saying yellow car at the same time neither one gets the point.  Points are only awarded while the car is running and are reset when the car is shut off.

One of the things I noticed while playing yellow car is there are a lot more yellow cars on the market than I thought.  Was this because I was now paying closer attention to how many yellow cars are on the road?  Or are there really more yellow cars on the road?

So, somewhat sick of "Yellow Car" my oldest son and I switched the game to "Orange Car".  As an experiment of sorts. Which is more of a challenge since some red cars look orange until you get closer, and then they wouldn't count.

We were trying to see if a.) you see more of a color of car because you are paying closer attention, b.) if there are really more of those cars on the road, and c.) how long would it take for the rest of the family to catch on once we changed the color.  (It took them about 3 days.)

So, sure enough, I have been seeing a LOT of orange cars lately.  It couldn't be because the color is more popular than it was 3 months ago!  Could it?

No, I think it is because we have been paying attention to the orange cars.

Isn't that how God speaks to us?  We sometimes get wrapped up in our lives and pray out of habit or for something to do, but how often are we listening?  A few days ago, I had posted about listening.  Listening to God is part of that.  We need to pay attention to Him, not just listen for Him.  Notice what He has for us, not just "feel" it.  Are we hearing His voice? Or are we just hearing what we want to hear?

John 8:47
Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

Pretty clearly we are told that if you belong to God, you will hear the words of God.  Will God ever reveal a new truth? NO.  But, times I have heard the Holy Spirit talking to me, it has been through His Word, and it re-enforces what has been written.  Jesus tells us in John, that we will hear His voice and follow!

John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Are you hearing God because you are paying attention?  Or because it is something to do?  Perhaps you aren't listening at all?  What "orange cars" are you finding in your spiritual walk?