3 Voices You Should Never Listen To & 1 You Should

The voices you hear determine your direction & your destination.

The question you & I have to answer is, which voices are we going to listen to & allow to have influence over our lives?

Here’s what I know is true about me & you.  What we hear has a powerful effect on us.  The sound of a certain song can dramatically affect your mood.  It can make you want to dance or sit & cry.  Turn on the news & chances are you feel angry, or sad, or mad, or all of the above.  Listen to a book or a favorite podcast & you might feel encouraged or even blessed.

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The things we choose to listen to & not listen to have a powerful impact on us.  All I want to suggest here is that we choose carefully the voices we allow to have presence in our hearts & minds.

Here are Three Voices You Should Never Listen to:

1. The Voice that Says You’re NOT ENOUGH:

Some of you, the voice on repeat in your heart & life right now are the negative voices. You’ve heard all your life you’re not good enough, pretty enough, tall enough, skinny enough, smart enough… and because someone who carried weight in your life said those words to you, you’ve followed them & those words have determined the direction of your life.

But you are enough! If you want to know the value of something look at the price that was paid for it. Take one look at the cross & you’ll see the price paid for you. God paid the highest price for you. The Good Shepherd laid down his life for you! You are enough. You are worth it. Don’t ever say you’re not. Don’t ever minimize the price Christ paid for you on the cross!

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2. The Voice on Repeat of that 1 INSULT:

Some of you, even though the majority of the voices in your life are trying to lift you up, that one voice, that one critic, that one negative comment is stuck on repeat in your brain. It’s not the voice of your Good Shepherd, but that comment, that critic is on repeat in our heart & life right now & you can’t get past it.

I’ve always remembered this idea that I once heard from Jon Acuff. He said, 1 insult + 1,000 compliments = 1 insult. You’re stuck on the 1 insult but the voice of the Good Shepherd is calling you by name & lifting up your head. Listen to His voice above all the rest & hear his care & concern for you!

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3. The Voice that Reminds you of THE PAST:

And for some of us, all we hear when we stop to listen are all the mistakes & poor choices we ever made. If you ever hear a voice bringing up the sins of your past, that’s not the voice of God. You tend to think it is, but it’s not. It’s the voice of the enemy wanting you to think it’s the voice of God. He’s tricky like that. The devil is sly.

The voice of God will never remind you of what you’ve done, the voice of God will always remind you of what He’s done through Jesus on the cross FOR you.

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Here’s what I know about you:

The voice you hear determines the direction you go.

So the question remains… what voice is determining your direction & destination today?

The ONE Voice You Should Listen to:

One of the first disagreements my wife & I had was when I got my first GPS. It was Christmas & it was a Garmin. It was time to say good-bye to MapQuest! Now what you need to know about me is that I always get lost!

So when I first met Alisha & we first started dating, one of the things I loved about her was that she had these killer instincts when it came to directions. I really believed you could drop her blindfolded in the middle of nowhere & she could find her way home. So a few years later when I got my first GPS, we got it all hooked up in the car & took off down the road.

And that’s when the problems started.

I was sitting at a stop sign & I distinctly remember the GPS telling me to turn left but Alisha told me to turn right. I thought, “Uh oh. Here we go.” You could cut the tension with the knife. Who was I going to trust: the GPS or my wife? Who’s voice was I going to follow? It was decision time.

Alisha is telling me all the reasons she’s right & the GPS is wrong. But I’m like, the GPS has such a cool British accent, how could it be wrong? It’s got internal maps. It’s recently been updated!

Finally I decided to go with Alisha because I knew the GPS wouldn’t make me sleep on the couch!

The Most Important Thing About You…

And this may be the most important thing about you. The most important thing about you may be the voice you listen to most & choose to follow.

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You have a choice. Which voice will you hear? Which voice will you follow?

Is it the voice of Jesus?

The direction & destination of our lives is decided by the voice we choose to follow.

Maybe today is the day you turn up the volume & listen everyday to the voice of Jesus this week. Here’s one simple way to do just that.  Take time to read the Red Letters!  In most Bibles, the words of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke & John are written in RED.  Take time everyday to read, hear, listen to & reflect on the words of Jesus.

Some of us would probably love for God to give us turn by turn directions in our lives today. We’re dying for God to tell us what to do in our situation. If that’s you, I want to remind you that you probably already know what God wants you to do. Honestly, it’s normally the hard thing. There’s an old saying: “Sometimes the hardest thing & the right thing are the same thing.”

Whatever the case, be sure to take time to listen & follow the voice of Jesus.  Because the voice you hear determines the direction you go.

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