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By: Michael Janetis

I wrote the song Beautiful when I was sitting at my friend Jeff Carson’s piano in Montgomery, Alabama. I remember gazing at the chipped ivories that had been yellowed and stained from years of old gospel tunes and the varnish that was flaking off. I remember looking at his piano with the amazing wood carvings that had been distressed from the countless times that it had been moved across the many traveled cities and states. Looking at the detail work, I thought to myself, there must have been incredible amount of thought that went into its original design and I remember thinking to myself, I would love to take this piano and refinish it to its former glory and just as I thought that, God dropped in my heart “son this piano is just like you…its just like your life, you’re cracked, you’re chipped,and you’re out of tune…what was at one time beautiful in your life is now mard and distressed”. He then started speaking to me about restoration.

Restore – to bring back to a former, original, or normal condition,

to bring back to a state of health, soundness, to put back to a former place, or to a former position, restitution of (anything taken away or lost).

The first process of restoration is the stripping away of the old. The stripping process can be very uncomfortable and irritating when God begins to take His sandpaper to our lives, to mindsets and perceptions. We all carry scars in our lives that have been formed by violations, abuse, crushed hopes and broken dreams, failures and disappointments that create jaded views and deceptive perceptions of how we view God and how we think He views us and we find it inconceivable that a perfect God could love us. But God does love us and He wants to get back to the grain in our lives, the original design…His original intention for us…to be in tuned and bring forth a sound of beauty.  The restoration process although it is uncomfortable and irritating, the end result is beautiful and the process is necessary to get to the beauty. This process is found in Joel chapter 2. The Bible declares that if we turn to Him with our whole heart with fasting and weeping and mourning that He will restore the years that the locust has eaten. He says that we will eat in plenty and be satisfied. Whether these scares were created by our own hands or at the hands of others He promises to bring new life, a fulfilled life. He makes all things new. Hold on friend because that which is beautiful is about to be revealed in your life.

Recently I was sitting in my living room for our weekly family movie night. I found myself with my laptop open, chatting on facebook with 3 friends, answering my phone and replying to various emails and texts messages on my Blackberry, all while communicating with my family in the room. During this time, I was aware of all that was going on around me, yet I found myself emotionally disengaged from everyone I was communicating with.

I wonder if at times that we view God as just another chat, email, or text message that we are emotionally disengaged from and that the only time we are passionate about pursuing His voice is when we need something, seeing as how we are so well acquainted with communicating with people we have never seen. Perhaps our idea of following God is like following someone’s Twitter updates. Perhaps He is just another relationship we decide to log-off with when we become bored.

I remember growing up before everyone and their grandma had a cell phone, before facebook, myspace, twitter, ipods, wireless internet, XM radio and the laundry list of other technology gadgets, that it seemed easier to hear the voice of God.

This week I was in prayer and I found myself praying “Lord, I want to hear your voice…speak to me!” And hey, guess what? I heard him!!! He spoke to me and said turn down the noise, turn down the radio and get quiet. Hearing God through the noise is like driving 70 mph on the highway with the windows down trying to have a conversation on the cell phone…you find yourself SCREAMING and you only hear a broken conversation…the result is pure frustration simply because you refuse to roll up your windows!

So check this out, Christianity is unique among religions, for it alone offers a personal relationship with the creator beginning here and now and lasting throughout eternity. Jesus declared, “This is eternal life that they may know God” (Jn. 17:2). Unfortunately, many in the church miss the great blessing of fellowship with our Lord because we have lost the ability to recognize His voice within us. Though we have the promise that “My sheep hear My voice,” too many believers are starved for that intimate relationship that alone can satisfy the desires of their hearts.

I personally believe that hearing God, is easier than we think at times. In Psalms 46, God tells us, “Be still and know that I am God”, Cease striving, let go, relax and know that I am God.” To hear God you first need to learn to be still. Habakkuk said, “I will stand on my guard post…”(Hab.2:1). Habakkuk knew that to hear God’s voice he had to go to a quiet place and still his own thoughts and emotions. When you’re still it’s much easier to draw near to God and begin to hear Him speak in your heart. His promptings are gentle and if you’re not still, you’ll miss them. Start by removing all distractions, find a place where you can be alone and undisturbed and quiet the voices and thoughts fighting for your attention. If you struggle with this and your mind’s busy, try writing down the thoughts that come so that they’re out of your head. If you become conscious of sin, confess it so it’s no longer in the way. If your mind is still busy, visualise Jesus there with you. The key is to be so focused on God that everything else fades into the background. When you become still you’ll begin to sense God’s presence. By being still, I mean not doing anything other than making it possible to be in touch with God and experience Him. God is speaking to us, so let’s quiet the noise in our life and listen to what He is saying.