The Things Obstructing God's Voice

I've been thinking about this post for about a week but haven't had time to write because of an overwhelming backup at work. But now I'm all caught up, and finally back to writing. The topic that God has placed on my heart has been prompted by an uncomfortable situation that forced me to analyze and re-evaluate a few things in my life. For a little while -- maybe a week or two -- I stopped reading my Bible. Have no misconceptions -- this HAS happened before. But ever since my dedication last November, whenever routine takes over and I don't read, it feels suffocating. It literally feels like someone has cut off the source of energy from me and I slowly lose my strength. I hunger for the word and especially for the fellowship with God that it allows.

Ironically, right during the time of my rut a friend invited me out for coffee. The friend is not a believer, but expressed excitement about hearing more about God during text messaging the night before. This made me uber-excited, perhaps a little too soon, because the next message completely threw me off. "If I respect your faith, will you respect my decision to be an atheist?" How would you respond to that? With little time to think, and knowing that I can only reply correctly with the help of the Holy Spirit, I said a quick prayer and listened. Sure enough, an answer came in a few seconds. But they felt like a lifetime. And during the tiny delay that almost threw me into panic I realized that there were a bunch of things occupying my mind that were completely in the way of God's voice!

After analyzing this situation, the meaning of the verse "All things are lawful, but not all things edify." (1 Cor. 10:23) came to me in a brand new light. Growing up in a traditional Russian baptist church, I was used to strict rules: don't smoke, don't drink, don't dance, don't listen to music, don't wear short skirts, don't watch TV. Unfortunately restrictions never really came with convincing explanations about why those things aren't supposed to be done. And naturally, without an explanation, the rules were followed only by those who never question what they're told or are deathly afraid of upsetting their parents. (A good thing. Until you are stuck in the rut of legalism and miss the whole point of Christianity.)

I am positive that for everything restricted there are millions of good reasons. But one of them especially stood out to me that night. Like trying to listen to a sermon on a radio frequency that is far away and is being used by another station closer, all the things that are addictive or just not edifying obstruct our connection with God. The music we listen to, the movies that we watch, the books that we read and the magazines that we look at, all contribute to a huge salad of thoughts that occupy our mind. The more influences there are, the more difficult it becomes to distinguish which one is speaking at which time. And the reason that it's important to stay away from all those influences as much as possible, is the ability to hear and recognize God's voice quickly in situations when you're put on the spot.

God is always faithful. He never fails to give us wisdom in an emergency. He often speaks in unexpected ways through mediums that we might think are already too familiar to get anything out of -- songs, places, people. But in order to show His faithfulness and love to others, we need to be filled with Him. We need to be read-up, prayed-up, worshipped-out, and constantly alert. We also need to stay away from anything that obstructs His voice and quickly repent once convicted, before any small sin puts a wedge between our relationship with God and draws us further and further away from His love. Only then it will be easier to instantly recognize His voice in difficult situations, and truly show His love to others out of the overflow of it in our own lives, without compromising principles, values, and convictions.