There’s a lot of noise out there.  So many voices from so many places.  Loud voices, strident voices, persuasive voices, angry voices, commanding voices, suggestive voices, secretive whispering voices, informative instructive voices, authoritative all-knowing voices, caring well-meaning voices – I am surrounded completely and continually by the myriad millions of voices this world contains.  Do you hear them all too, dear reader?

Do you ever wish for silence?  How do you decide which voice you will heed?  It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the voices – volume both in number of voices and in decibel level of those same voices.  I confess – I find myself asking God about this very thing – this noise problem in my life.

Lord, grant that I would hear Your voice today.  Still my steps, quiet my mind, open my ears to hear You speak.  Silence the shouts of competing voices, the many voices that surround me daily – some invited in, some not.  Some come unbidden and refuse to leave – those voices of criticism and condemnation in my head.

Protect me from those voices in the world, social media – intruding into my day – with voices of advice and wisdom, winsome worldly ways or perhaps warnings of doom and fear, voices of enticing entertainments, voices that promise to solve my problems and show me the way – the way to what?  they do not say – just that it is the way.

Lord, let my ears turn to You, let me seek You in silence, even though Your voice at times is booming thunder, it is Your still, small voice that I do not want to miss – not even for a moment.  Give me ears to hear, ears to recognize Your voice.  I want to hear You in my stillness.  I want to hear You even more in my nosiness – to hear Your voice above the din of noise that so often surrounds me.

Though I do not recognize any voice amid the myriad of sounds, do not hear any voice distinct from the rest – I can recognize Your voice with clarity and conviction, I can hear You clearly despite the din which surrounds my ears.

“He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out.   . . .   My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.”   (John 10:3 & 27-28)

Heavenly Father, out of all the voices speaking, calling, shouting out, it is Your voice I want most to hear.  Yours is the voice that brought the universe into being. Yours is the voice that spoke this earth and every living thing on it into existence. It is Your voice in the storm saying, “Peace!  Be still!”  It is Your voice that rejoices over me with singing, Your voice that calms the wind and the waves, Your voice that calms my fears and my soul.

“The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.  The voice of the lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.  The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning.  The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;”   (Psalm 29:4, 5 & 7-8)

Seems like I would never miss that voice of Yours, Heavenly Father – but You don’t always speak so loudly.  Remember Elijah on the mountain?  (of course You do!) You were not in the great wind that tore the mountain apart and shattered the rocks.  You were not in the earthquake that came next.  You were not in the fire that followed.  Turns out You were in the gentle whisper after the fire and Elijah heard You!

I want to have ears like Elijah, Lord.  I don’t want to miss a one of Your words. Your words are life to me.  Your words are my manna in the morning and my light at night.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”  (Psalm 119:105)

That’s why I have to learn to listen well.  Lord, I know You always hear me, (You are a good and perfectly patient listener) but I don’t always hear You.  (I am not such a good listener)

“I love the Lord because He hears my prayers and answers them.  Because He bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I breathe!”  (Psalm 116:1-2)

I want to say along with Samuel, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”  (1 Samuel 3:10)

Lord, let Your teaching fall like rain and Your words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants, let Your words fall to earth like the manna You sent so long ago.  (Deuteronomy 32:2)  And may I be found listening in the rain You send to sustain me with Your words.

open my ears, open my mind, open my heart,

sincerely,         Grace Day