Week Thirty-Five - Don't Believe Everything You Hear

It is hard to sort the lies from the truth these days. It seems to depend on who you choose to listen to and the motivation behind their information. Because I got to overthinking about the war in Ukraine, the raid on Trump's vault, the warnings about considerable increases in energy prices, and who in the world is going to be the next Prime Minister in the UK, I found myself growing concerned and started trying to figure this all out. Well, you know that was a waste of effort! I'm not in charge or responsible for any of those things. I have no power to change them, and my voice would make no difference. Neither would yours! We are just peons, victims of this world's actions. But are we?

I had to get my thinking re-aligned with Scripture. When it comes to war, God said we would experience battles throughout the centuries. Nothing new here. Trump's vault is his business, not mine. Increased energy prices are scary and unpredictable, but these things have always come and gone. God already knows about them. And the next Prime Minister will be by God's design.

Isaiah 40 popped up in my mind. It holds several promises and thoughts that help us when we hear the world's noise. First, verse 4 assures us God will make the crooked places straight and the rough places plain. He will make a path for us. And His word will stand forever (vs. 8).

Then, verses 13 and 14 put before us a serious question. "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counseller that taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?" In other words, who am I to think I could out-figure God or tell Him what to do? I needed to get back into my place.

Then, verses 15 and 17 really caught my attention. "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance. The nations before him are as nothing." Wow! What a difference it makes when you get things back into God's perspective.

Chapter 40 finished with more great verses. Verses 28 and 31 read, "Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

So, what are we listening to? Proverbs 14:15 gives us this admonition, "The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going." 

Do you believe everything you hear? Is it causing a cloud of despair to follow you around? Let's not listen more intently to the news and the world's voice than we do to the eternal, unchanging voice of God.