Hearing from God

By Barbara Speicher

Experiencing a calamitous year of the COVID-19 pandemic can crack the core of anyone’s faith, undermining the strongest foundation. How could anyone cope with the continuous confusion and chaos to find comfort and peace? Not realizing it initially, this trial forced author Barbara Speicher to seek and find answers to many of life’s important questions. Her daily writings became a synthesis of daily news, God’s perspective through His life-changing word, reflections on pertinent personal experiences, and her overall responses.

These became life-sustaining food for the long haul during the pandemic, bringing understanding and enlightenment to many critical emotions and issues: fear, worry, sadness, grief, faith, trust, peace, perseverance, gratitude, and hope. God was focusing attention on His transforming truths, and the importance of obeying them with a godly mindset. Barbara has collected these thoughts into a devotional in Hearing from God.

Steeped in scripture, God’s nuggets of truth, this devotional helps you overcome hardships and grow personally through the difficulties and challenges. The objective is to gain understanding for better living in the present and to make good decisions in the future, moving forward in a positive direction. God, His words of truth, and great love for every person are an integral part of each page bringing healing, hope, and light to any of life’s challenges.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781664289321

Barbara Speicher

Barbara Speicher earned a bachelor’s degree in English, a master’s degree in education, and taught for twenty-three years. Under her company name, Learning by Song, she created and produced four education CDs with companion workbooks in various subjects. Recently, she completed a musical about Jesus. Her passion is honoring her Savior through her writing, poetry, and songs. Barbara lives in Tustin, California. She has three married children and two grandchildren. This is her third book.

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Copyright © 2023 Barbara Speicher.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8933-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8934-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8932-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023900677

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/10/2023

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Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman

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NHEB: Scripture taken from the New Heart English Bible.

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

1 Daily Bread

2 The Missing Health Mandate

3 Drawing Near to God

4 The Important Word All

5 Significant Hands

6 The Power of Prayer

7 Alone/Together

8 Things Working Together

9 Faith over Fear

10 Live by Choice

11 Caring Counts

12 Live Condition-Free

13 God’s in Control

14 Unexpected Pluses

15 Not Everything Changes

16 Recommended Habits

17 God Is at Work

18 A Minnie Miracle

19 A Watchful Eye

20 The Debate

21 God’s Plans

22 A Child’s Perspective

23 Trials Are Opportunities

24 No Complaints

25 Tough Times, Tough People

26 The Great I AM

27 Creation Speaks

28 Gratitude

29 Finding Joy

30 A Different Set of Eyes

31 Needing the Light

32 Be Still and Breathe

33 The Science of Prayer

34 The Price of Sacrifice

35 God Talk

36 Overcoming

37 Rules to Follow

38 Aren’t Things Different Now?

39 Getting Along

40 My Help

41 What Will Make the Change?

42 Walls Come Tumblin’ Down

43 What’s Ahead?

44 In Serving God, He Serves Us

45 What Makes the Difference?

46 Hardened Hearts

47 Like a Child

48 Trusting

49 The If Is Canceled

50 A Bike Tells a Story

51 Systemic Blame-ism

52 Learning from the Great Depression

53 The Positive in the Negative

54 Attitude Is the Key

55 Important Lessons

56 New Mercies Every Morning

Endnotes

About the Author

This book is

dedicated to everyone who

has helped me grow in my faith

and to my greatest Teachers, the Father and His Son.

Those who trust in the Lord are steady as Mount Zion, unmoved by any circumstance.

Psalm 125:1

PREFACE

What a year it has been since the official lockdown was initiated in the United States to help curtail the spread of COVID-19, a deadly coronavirus first identified in 2019. The virus was named for its appearance: Corona means crown, and, the virus’s outer layers are covered with spike-proteins that surround them like a crown.¹ From what I witnessed this past year, the only crown it had was a crowning blow!

The beginning of the lockdown in 2020 was especially memorable for me because just the week before was the weekend of my birthday, March 14. Fortunately, no big getaway celebration had been planned, just a family game day here at our house. It did seem strange shopping that weekend, however, and seeing the mass buying frenzy of such items as paper goods, canned goods, water, milk, eggs, and other staples. People were in a hurry, looked worried, and focused on stocking up.

Soon enough, though, everyone was in a sheltered environment with a lot more alone time. Feeling unnerved and needing to sort through my jumbled feelings, I started journaling. This writing journey became so compelling and cathartic. God was showing me daily glimpses of His love and light even in the darkest days, giving me much-needed peace. Even in these routine days of nonevents, God was making them eventful in His own way.

My mornings regularly started out with my coveted quiet time with God and my hot tea. After that, my stationary bike beckoned, and while pedaling, our two daily newspapers kept me occupied. The news usually triggered my thoughts, leading me to sit down with pen in hand. Next came household chores, and later in the afternoon, a walk in the neighborhood. Surprising to me was that these simple, rather mundane repetitive routines were all contributing to my thoughts, insights, understandings, and enlightenment. I was quickly discovering that because of my availability throughout the day and openness to hearing from God, I was becoming, the pen of a ready writer.² On a number of occasions in the middle of my daily walk, God would give me an insight to that day’s journal writing, hurrying me home to put it down on paper before it was forgotten. Sometimes when driving to the store, I would actually pull over to the side of the road to jot down a pertinent thought. Even in the middle of the night, an additional idea would suddenly wake me up that needed to be written down before I went back to sleep. Each day’s writing was a result of what God directed me to focus on to help me through this pandemic.

I was quickly learning that when we undergo difficulties like this pandemic, God’s plan is that we not only go through them, but grow through them. It is said that fruit grows best in the valleys, not on the mountaintops. And true to life, this pandemic forced me to face myself: my feelings, my fears, my faith, and my future. This ordeal had given me food for thought, grown my understandings, and focused my attention on what’s most important. Each day brought new issues to the forefront, forcing me to determine how to mentally deal with them, growing my realization of just how personal, pertinent, and powerful God’s words of truth are for me. In my classroom of quietude, I was learning important and transformative life lessons.

Highly acclaimed author Francine Rivers was recently asked in an interview, What is one piece of advice you would give to aspiring new authors? Without hesitation, she responded, Write the book you need to read! With those seven simple words, so poignant, I realized that’s exactly what I had done by journaling through this pandemic. I needed to hear from God personally through this pandemic and desperately needed to be filled daily with His promises and comforting words of truth to give me hope and needed peace. I wrote the book I needed to read!

Even though vaccines have been discovered and are widely distributed, the fight against this coronavirus is far from over. New variants of the virus are emerging, and there is concern that they may spread more easily and that available vaccines will be less effective against them. There’s not only a fight against the virus, but sadly, a battle for the vaccine. The newspaper headline today read, Vaccine Priority Causes Division.³ Even something so positive as a hopeful remedy to the pandemic comes with contention. Recently, I learned that there is even a vaccine black market! Another recent discouraging newspaper headline indicated, Virus Likely to Stay After Crisis Fades.⁴ The virus could become an endemic, lasting for years.

Life will always hold its challenges, but this last year in particular was not meant to be wasted. God’s Word asks, Did all your experience mean nothing at all? Surely, it meant something!⁵ God doesn’t do things in a vacuum, and if anything can give comfort, peace, and insight to others, it is to be shared. May the spiritual truths I gleaned through this experience be used to encourage others in their faith, making their life’s journeys—especially in difficult times—a little less burdensome.

Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ, the Father of Compassion,

and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles,

so we can comfort those in trouble with the comfort

we ourselves receive from God.⁶

Barbara Speicher

March 10, 2021

INTRODUCTION

Experiencing a calamitous year of the COVID-19 pandemic can crack the core of anyone’s faith and undermine the strongest foundation. During this difficult year, like none other, there were so many questions, nonstop worry, continuous devastating events, and many lives altered. How could anyone cope with all the confusion and chaos and find comfort and peace? Not realizing it initially, this trial was forcing me to seek and find answers to many of life’s important questions. My journaling became a combination of daily news, God’s perspective through His life-changing Word, and my personal response. Sometimes, it would trigger relevant experiences from the past when I had experienced God’s extraordinary touch in my life that brought further comfort and calm. All of these together became life-sustaining food for the long haul, bringing understanding to so many critical matters being dealt with during the pandemic: fear, worry, suffering, sadness, faith, trust, peace, perseverance, gratitude, and hope. God was focusing my attention on additional pertinent issues: obedience, prayer, worship, a godly mindset, and His provision and providence.

This book is really not so much about the pandemic as it is about how to overcome hardships and grow personally through the difficulties and challenges. It is like many other books written during trying times. The objective is to gain understanding for better living in the present and to make good decisions in the future, moving forward in a positive direction. Unlike some of those books, however, God is an integral part of every page of this journey. Years from now, for those who will not have experienced this COVID-19 pandemic, it will give a daily personal account of this unusual (as I often said, surreal) time in our country and make the reader appreciate what is often taken for granted, such as being able to go outside and being with people without worry of catching a deadly virus, not having to wear a mask in public, and entering stores and restaurants without restrictions.

Hopefully, this book will be read with thoughtful intent, gleaning God’s promises and nuggets of truth, taking time to pause and reflect on the scriptures contained in each day’s reading. It should be read in chronological order to make sense of actual events in our country occurring in 2020. A suggestion is to use the book as a daily devotional, reading one each day, internalizing the message, and adapting it to any current trial of life. Even though this was written during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lessons learned can be applied to any situation, bringing needed healing, hope, and light. God’s wisdom is not for just one time or place but for all time.

In Psalm 85:8, David said, I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people. May God speak to your heart in a very personal way, and may your faith grow stronger as you read with expectancy, Hearing from God.

ONE

Daily Bread

It’s good to be prepared and have a battle plan against COVID-19 but I’m concerned about what I’m observing at the onset of this pandemic. With mounting fear, people are starting to stockpile items like toilet paper, paper towels, canned goods, rice, bread, and other necessities. It is so strange to see the whole paper goods aisle in the grocery store devoid of products and parts of other sections empty. This scarcity mindset really sets up a whole chain of events: panic, grabbing, and then hoarding, which causes a serious lack for those who have immediate needs for those items, creating more panic. This fear of not having enough is also evidenced in other scenarios. A number of states are continually asking for more and more ventilators and masks. In fact, a recent news article stated, Some states were asking for more medical supplies than they really needed … the fears of the shortage have led to inflated requests.¹ The article advocated that instead of states stockpiling for the unforeseen future, supplies needed to be sent to the most urgent areas.

In the midst of all this, my Bible study assignment was to read about the Israelites who were led out of Egypt by Moses and ended up wandering in the desert forty years, thinking God had deserted them. They lacked food, and God miraculously provided manna (a bread-like substance) but with the stipulation that they were to only gather enough manna for each day, just enough for what they needed, and no more: the Lord said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.’² Those who did hoard found it was futile because the manna would spoil and smell. Why did God want the people to gather just enough food for that day when they could have stockpiled it? The point was that God wanted them to see they could trust His promise to provide for them each day. In my mind, this was not happenstance to read this today!

There are two stories in the New Testament where Jesus also provided bread for the multitudes in need. In the first story, five thousand people came to see and hear Jesus, but they came with no food. Seeing their need, Jesus asked God to bless just five small loaves of bread and two fish, and it multiplied: they all ate and were satisfied³ with twelve basketfuls left over. In a similar account, Jesus fed four thousand people from only seven loaves of bread with seven basketfuls left over.⁴ In both stories, the point is clear. We don’t need to worry about hoarding items and going without. God, who created us, knows perfectly well our needs. Just like the thousands of people in these two stories, seeking Jesus was their foremost need. They were not worrying about feeding their bodies, but God provided it for them.

These lessons serve to guide us today and help us understand something very important, especially in this pandemic: All mankind scratches for its daily bread, but your heavenly Father knows your needs. He will always give you all you need from day to day if you will make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.⁵ He wants our allegiance. He wants us to believe He will provide, not be filled with anxiety about tomorrow’s bread. His Word very clearly states, So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.⁶ This does not mean that we don’t take responsibility or prepare or save. It means we trust God is always working for our good and walks with us in all circumstances. We lean on Him for strength, fortitude, and insight to meet our daily needs. Not only can He provide enough for each day, He can miraculously give us more than enough, an extra blessing of abundance as demonstrated with basketfuls left over.

And what would God have us do with any extra over and above what we really need? He is very clear that we are to share it with those who don’t have enough. Just as with the manna example, He who gathered much had nothing left over and he who gathered little had no lack.⁷ God intends that each person have a share of the good things in life. However, even though there are always real-life disparities, equalization is not meant to be forced. As one Bible commentary explained, Property is like manna; it will not bear hoarding … God permits the unequal distribution of property, not so the rich should selfishly enjoy it, but share it with the poor.⁸ God’s ideal is that equity be achieved