Our world is loud and full of “authoritative” voices. Scroll through social media for just ten seconds and you’ll find people claiming to be experts sharing their opinion (presented as fact) that you need to agree with (or else something terrible will happen to you, your possessions, your kids, or your health). It’s a battle for us to control what voices we are even hearing, let alone the voices we are actually listening to. Most of the time, we are too exhausted to filter what we are listening to, so we take in more negative voices than we intend.
Our world is full of negative voices. On the road, standing in line, on social media, on the news—it’s everywhere, on repeat. All of these voices point us back to ourselves, our circumstances, our limits. Who will we allow to speak into our lives?
We can follow the thousands negative voices or the one positive voice: Christ. We can follow the lies of the enemy or the truth of our Father. We can follow the fears of our flesh or the strength of the Spirit. This isn’t to say that we pretend that those negative things don’t exist. Joshua and Caleb didn’t ignore the threats or the negative voices in the Promised Land, instead they kept their focus on the Lord: “They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with use! Don’t be afraid of them!’ ” (Numbers 14:9, NLT). Because they listened to the voice of the Lord, they had the right perspective. It didn’t matter if the men were giants, the towns were fortified, or their armies were great. Joshua and Caleb realized that without the Lord on their side, they were helpless prey to God’s people. Nothing can stand in the way of God and his promises to us.
Reflection/Discussion Question: What voices are you listening to most often?

Comments