When you’re going through a difficult time, there are a lot of voices that will try to direct you. Some will be the cliché voices that feel very patronizing and insincere. Some will express confidence in you and tell you that you can make it through. Some will tell you to trust God and that they are praying for you. Then there are the voices of doubt that sneak in wondering where God is in the situation and why hasn’t He shown up. You get to hear them all, but which do you entertain? Which voices do you allow to echo in your mind? The longer it goes on, the louder the voices of doubt and anger seem to grow. It can be difficult to maintain your trust in God the more dire the situation gets, but you must keep trusting Him and His plan no matter how hard things get.
In 2 Kings 18 the Assyrian army had besieged Jerusalem even though King Hezekiah had paid money for them to leave Israel alone. The king sent his commander in chief to talk to the officials about surrendering since they were controlling the water flow into the city. In verse 19 – 20 he said, “This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you so confident? Do you think that mere words can substitute for military skill and strength? Who are you counting on, that you have rebelled against me?” (NLT). He spoke in Hebrew so all the people could hear and be afraid. He wanted them to lose heart and quit trusting in God, but Hezekiah didn’t listen to that voice. He sought out a prophet to speak to him on behalf of God. He kept his faith and God did the impossible in the most dire of circumstances because he continued to trust God.
In 2 Corinthians, the Church was under attack. They were being persecuted for their faith. The different voices were coming in and trying to take their focus off God. In 2 Corinthians 5:7 Paul reminded them, “For we live by believing and not by seeing.” Our trust is in God whom we can’t see, not in the circumstances we can see. It’s hard to keep our eyes on Jesus when the voices tell us God doesn’t care and that He has abandoned us to fight this alone. I’ve heard those voices. They’re very loud at times, but we must keep directing ourselves back to the Bible. It is God’s Word to us. Faith comes by hearing it so read it out loud. Make it the voice you hear above all the others. Let God’s words be the ones to build your faith and keep your eyes on Him despite what your circumstances are showing you and the voices are telling you. God is there even though you can’t see Him working or feel Him. He’s working all things out for your good. Trust His voice above all others.
Photo by Eliecer Gallegos on Unsplash
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 