“Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him. O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” Isaiah 30:18-21
I wonder sometimes....do I allow all the "noise" of the world to muffle God's voice..so that it is a a very faint whisper? I have to listen carefully. If one of my children talks to me from behind me, it is harder to hear them than if they are in front of me. Why? Well, first I'm usually focused on the task directly in FRONT of me. Then because I am not looking at them and I'm a visual learner, it helps me to see what is going on to process it. So when they are behind me, I have to make myself be more focused on their words than if I were looking them right in the eye as they speak. So when I think about trying to hear direction from the Lord from behind me, I just keep thinking how focused I must be to hear His direction.
I love how the beginning of this passage (v. 18) we read, "but the LORD longs to be gracious to you." His love is so perfect and He longs to be gracious to us. Wow. Honestly there are days I wake up and I am not longing to be gracious to the kids, my spouse or anyone outside of my four walls. I'm tired or irritable or some other emotion that can easily bring out the 'best' of my sinful nature. For example, the other day when I was up all night because one of my sweet boys was up sick all night. I was very tired...not feeling like being super gracious. But God calls me to love my kids as He loves me. So being a loving and gracious teacher was a challenge. But in that challenge...the Lord was so gracious, leading my heart and mind to graciously parent these boys.
Often I am distracted with the 'noise' and fail to hear the direction. Or sometimes I hastily act...without prayer...trying to self navigate. I'm not called to lead, but rather follow. Sometimes that's a tough pill to swallow. But I think the older I get the more I realize, no better place to be than following where the Lord wants me to be. I do NOT need to lead...I don't make the best decisions. It seems the fight we face is often for our focus. Our position is secure....if you are a follower of Christ and have believed in Him for salvation, that is settled. But....keeping our hearts focused on the Lord...that's a lot of the battle in this life.
I wish I had a remote to mute the noise. But it's not that easy, so instead, I must continue to fight for a steadfast focus. One that is rooted in the word and prayer so that as the Lord gives direction...I'll hear it...even if I can't 'see' it. Just like Ezra who went before us: "For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel." Ezra 7:10. He was determined to have a steadfast heart...steadfast on studying the Word, doing the Word and teaching the Word.
The more I'm in the word and the more consistent my prayer life, the easier it is to decipher between noise that needs my attention and noise that does not. All the 'noise' in life is not bad....it's the grip we allow it to have on us. I want to keep my filter clean and ready to go!
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