Noisy

Noisy

Acts 7: ³⁷ “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’

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Singing a jingle over and over, I almost persuaded someone to purchase the candy I was speaking about. “Want some?” they said. “No way!” I replied. I just like the song and it was stuck in my head.

• Sometimes marketing can be noisy to me.
• Sometimes marketing can make me hear a message I do not care for.
• Sometimes marketing can get to my ears, but not my heart.

Stephen explains what Moses said to the children of Israel. He spoke about JESUS being the prophet that people would “hear.” But how can I hear?

• GOD says to me “Believe in the LORD JESUS and you will be saved along with everyone in your household.”
• GOD says to me “Hear the word of the LORD.”
• GOD says to me “Listen for GOD’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go.”

Hearts can be very deceptive when it comes to listening. If I let my heart listen to fear, I will be filled with it. Same goes with hatred, lust, greed, impatience, abuse, disobedience, unfaithfulness, pleasure or lack of discipline.

When I listen to these, I am listening to the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness and self-control. GOD wants me to have a generous helping of the fruit of the Spirit so I can hear HIS still, quiet voice. HE breaks through the noise when I bear fruit. I am grateful HE speaks softly to me each day.

• What are you listening to?
• What are you filled with?
• Will you stop listening to the noise that is causing you to act opposite of what GOD wants you to and allow HIM to fill you with HIS fruit today?

When the noise is too noisy

Deuteronomy 27: ⁹ Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God. ¹⁰ Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today.”

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With one eye open I peered at the clock and to my dismay it was 4:37 in the morning. I had a very large project due and since I was awake I got up and thought about it.  That led to other thoughts. I realized I had gone to bed without doing voicemail.

As my brain slipped back into consciousness I remembered all of the people I had to contact for that day. By 5:00AM I was fully awake. I worked until 10:00PM. Oh, and I forgot to do voicemail again!

• Noisy situations keep me awake.
• Noisy circumstances bring on many thoughts that I lose sleep over trying to resolve.
• Noisy environments make me lose my concentration and it seems like I can’t focus.

There are many things that can cause noise in my life. People bring me problems. Material things break or are lost or stolen. Someone gets sick or feisty or demanding.  All of these things add to the noise and when the noise is too noisy, I want to go in the corner and ball up like a child.

• “Be silent” is what GOD wants me to be so I can hear HIM.
• “Stand still” is what GOD says to me when I’m running too fast.
• “Have rest” is what GOD is giving me when I lay awake worried about ‘insert situation.’

The most powerful and high GOD tends not to yell at me. In fact HE speaks in a very soft, calming, inaudible voice. When life is rushing at me too fast, GOD says “Quiet down and listen to ME. The situation is close to MY heart and I love you.”

• Do you have a lot on your mind?
• Does it seem like you are getting confused trying to figure out what to do next?
• Can you take a moment to quiet yourself sown to listen to GOD?
• Won’t you let GOD tell you what to do next instead of worrying about it?