Week Forty-Nine - Who Are You Listening To?

It is often difficult to distinguish lies from truth on the news and social media. It all depends on who you listen to and the motivation behind their information. 

I got to thinking about the war in Ukraine, Trump, Biden, and Putin, increased energy prices, the new government here in the UK, and a host of other things. I grew concerned, 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 cannot change them, and my voice would make little difference. Neither would yours. We are just peons, victims of this world's actions. But are we?

I had to align my thinking with scripture. When it comes to war, God said we would experience it. Nothing new there. Trump and Biden? Putin? God is the one who raises up and takes down leaders. Increased prices are scary and unpredictable, but these things always fluctuate. God already knows about that, and He knows the outcome of everything. It is all His to design.

Isaiah 40 popped up in my mind. It holds several promises and thoughts. 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, verse 8.

Then, verses 13 and 14 put before us a serious question. "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath 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 outfigure 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... All nations before him are as nothing." Wow! What difference when you get things back into God's perspective.

Chapter 40 finishes with a couple 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; they shall walk, and not faith.

Finally, Proverbs 14:15 gives this admonition, "The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his goings." So, let's not listen more intently to the news and the world than we do to our God's eternal, unchanging voice.