What Voices Are You Listening To?
We’ve been going through a message series in New Life Youth called “Voices.”
Often, we forget the power of the spoken word—voices.
Scripture says, God created the universe with the command of His voice, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Genesis 1:3.
In John 1, Jesus is described as the Word, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
We know that words are spoken and meant to communicate a message. God made the universe using words. He communicated the Gospel message through Jesus, the Word, because his life, death, and resurrection is a message to humanity and is now carried through the written word, the Scriptures, and his Church.
Humanity was also spoken into creation (Gen. 1:26), made in God’s image. Therefore, like God, we also have the ability to communicate through voice, maybe not to create a universe, but at least to tend and influence what is created—to build up or to tear down, to speak hope or to speak fear, to be gratuitous or to complain. Our words carry weight and influence. And so does others’.
We have voices speaking all around us, friends, family, parents, news, social media, God, etc. It is estimate we hear around 30,000 words per day. We see and hear between 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day. That is a lot of messages!
We even have voices speaking within us—fear, shame, regret, guilt, etc.
Everything and everyone has a voice and communicates a message. The question is: What voice will we listen to?
There’s a common saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” I’m beginning to believe this statement isn’t necessarily true.
Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death”
Words have power. They can build or they can break.
However, it depends on what we do with those voices. We may not have control on what we hear in passing, but we can control which voices to accept and believe.
So, how can we filter what we hear? I believe we can break down words into two categories:
Fear
Faith
Do the voices around us instill fear or do they spur on faith?
Are they voices we hear on the outside break us down or build us up? How about the voices on the inside—do they make us more fearful or more faithful?
So the question is: Will we listen to fear or to faith?
Some practical areas to consider:
Who do I surround myself with?
What am I listening to?
Have I made space to hear God’s voice today?
If we are not careful, all the voices in life, the gossip, the news, the negativity, the complaining, etc. can drown out God’s voice.
We must position ourselves daily to hear from God.
So... who are you listening to?