What Voices Are You Listening To?

Hello weekend readers! I just want to share something: because of all you wonderful readers who have followed my devotions for 6 years, my following has now gone over 3000 readers! They are from all over the world and many of them are military which touches my heart as they are in so many worn-torn places. So, to all of you, thank-you! And my promise is to continue to write and share the love and joy of our Savior to all who need it.

OK, let’s dive into my musings on listening. The reason is that I often don’t listen or I “half-listen” if it is boring or not useful, etc. Sadly, sometimes I miss what I should have listened to! I suspect we all do that but have you ever had a hacker that caught you off guard?

Here’s mine from several weeks ago. It seemed OK but—there was that tiny part of my brain that wasn’t so sure. So I did listen and it didn’t take me long to have those ‘red-flags’ pop-up and I knew this was a scammer. The one thing that irked me was they knew my name, my family, etc.—a private “not-to-know” so to speak. I turned in the scam to Google and it was shut down in seconds. It’s worth my time to turn them in so they don’t keep coming back for me and others.

It isn’t the first time I’ve had a scammer but this one was almost “too real” and it got me thinking: “Just how many voices do I listen to every day? Do I question who they are, or do I listen without even questioning them-ugh!”

I have wrestled with insomnia my whole life. Started when I was 4 years old and it still is with me. I have an internal monologue in my head and there are times I wish I could shut down all the voices! Sometimes I even lose direction, asking God if I missed something God wanted me to do!

A friend of mine who, like me, struggles with insomnia told me one day “Cyndy, sometimes I can’t be sure what God is saying to me. Maybe I’m not spiritual enough wondering if God would never ask me to do this or that. Gosh, I always mess things up.” Who doesn’t?! And that takes me back to the question of “who are we listening to?”

In 1 John 4:1 [EEB] the Apostle John warns us not to listen to every voice but to test what we hear: “My friends, do not believe everyone who says that they speak God’s message. There are many false prophets who are travelling around everywhere. They say that they have a message from God’s Spirit, but the message comes from a false spirit. So check each message carefully to see if it is really from God.”

When we listen to these voices without holding them up to the truth of God’s word, we can go down a path God never intended for us. It’s easy to be sucked-in to the world’s ideas. So how do we know who is what? Verse 5 from 1 John 1 tells us: “Those false prophets belong to this world. Their message comes from the ideas of people of this world. So the people of this world believe what they teach.” 

These distinctions from John may seem simple, but our enemy is skilled at distraction! When those voices confound us, stop and think: “Is this how God would speak to me? Is this consistent with God’s character?” If the answer is no, then turn the other way, don’t listen and don’t even look back. Remember that we are empowered by the spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit is always with us shutting down the voices that hurt us and speaking to our minds to embrace the goodness of God’s truth! AMEN.