Finding God in the Noise
Here's a thought, scripture, and prayer to guide us.
Thought:
Recently I was in a prayer meeting where at the end we had a time of silent prayer and contemplation. During that time many people’s loud voices carrying on conversations outside our closed room was a distraction. Thoughts of the enemy using the noise to distract became an irritation to me and I prayed for God to remove the noise. Instead of stopping the silent prayer time early, I decided to lean more into it. Thoughts rolled into my head leading me to think that I can’t pray or concentrate because of the noise and my mind became focused on one particular conversation I was hearing. Then God did something interesting. He took all their voices together and brought my attention to the unity of them all as white noise. I resonate with this concept of white noise as I sleep with a fan blowing less for the circulating air and more for the sound of airflow to fill gaps of isolated noises outside my room that may disturb my sleep. That is what God did with their voices for me in that moment. This is not to diminish the value of the humans each voice represents, but rather in the beauty of that prayer moment with the Father, he led me to hear his Spirit’s voice among the sea of voices and the noise was no longer a distraction. He led me to experience, in the noise, was how he was speaking to me. If not for the noise, would I have been listening to him so intently to hear how he was leading me to understand the sound of noise? Would I have heard how he can still speak in the noise? Would I have experienced his presence inviting me into a state of prayer intimacy I had not previously understood if not for the noise? This reminds me of the verse in Genesis where Joseph shared with his brothers who sold him into slavery that God’s plan all along was for him to go through some deep painful noise over many years for him to see God’s sovereign plan all along was to bring him, and his family, to a whole new level of good. Maybe you’re in a season of noise where all you hear is the loudness, the isolated sounds, and it’s deafening. This noise is a distraction. I encourage you to prayerfully lean into it. Hear God’s voice in the noise and trust he is using it to move you into something good to become someone he knows you are capable to be, which will ultimately glorify him even more.
Scripture:
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” Genesis 50:20 NLT
Prayer:
Father- help us hear your voice in the noise and it not be a sea of distraction, but a pathway to your goodness for us and for your glory. In Jesus name amen.
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God bless you and go get after it!
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