Recognizing God's voice

1 Samuel 3:4-5  "Then the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, 'Here I am.'  He ran to Eli and said, 'Here I am, you called me.'  'I didn't call you,' Eli replied.  'Go lie down.'  So he went and lay down."

This story continues and we learn that it was God calling Samuel, but he mistakenly thought it was Eli's voice he was hearing.  How often do we do the same thing?  We hear a voice calling us, but we don't realize whose voice it really is.  We run out into the world and start finding people, places, and things with which to associate the voice. 

We don't often have the benefit of someone like Eli who will tell us that we are looking in the wrong place and send us away.  We go down a lot of mistaken roads following what we believe to be the source of what we heard.  Many times it is God's voice we are hearing, but we are not well trained at discerning His voice.  Fortunately, God is patient and will continue calling us until we recognize it is Him we are hearing. 

With the increasing amount of noise in the world, hearing God's voice requires even more diligence and discipline on our part to create times of quiet in our lives where He is free to speak and we are prepared to listen.