Gentle whispers

First of all happy December!! Only 23 more days Til Christmas!! (Not to stress anyone out or anything) but on a more serious note today and this past week was been crazy! I was out of town and  I have finals coming up but it's  also crazy because through all of this I was spiritually not plugging into the word of God. I was finding my own way. To be honest I feel like most people (including me) think in order to follow God we have to be constantly giving up. And that's how I felt this past week. Now yes we do need to give up certain things when we follow God but for me that's all I could really focus on.  There's a verse that has really helped me focus on God and not the sacrifice part. "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings" Hosea 6:6 This verse just reminds me that giving up a bunch of things doesn't really help of I'm not acknowledging God. Present trials like these can cause us to not hear Gods voice clearly because are anxiety on sacrificing is drowning out his voice. Today after school as I was doing some devotions God just reminded me to sit and wait for him because eventually we wil be able to hear Gods gentle whispers to us.