Devotional
Enduring Temptation and Hearing God’s Voice
Do you want to hear God’s voice?
As a Christian, this may seem like a silly question and one where the overwhelming answer is… yes.
However, our day-to-day actions do not reflect this desire to hear God’s voice. Just look at our actions.
The average person spends around 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phones each day, according to recent studies. We turn up the volume of our phones and tune into social media, work, school, and life and tune out God’s voice that is speaking to us every day.
God does speak to us every single day, at the same volume and at the same pace. He never stops talking to us. But often, we stop listening to Him.
The responsibility is on us to turn down the volume on all the other things going on in our lives so we can hear God.
Mark 1:35 tells us that even Jesus, the Son of God, got up “In the morning, while it was still very dark” to go and pray in a “deserted place” (Mark 1:35). In His solitude, when the volume of life was quiet and the far-off crowds were asleep, Jesus encountered God the Father, and He could hear God’s voice.
He also encountered Satan, and Jesus could hear Satan’s voice, too.
It is in these deserted places, where we all can find the enemy. Despite that, hearing the enemy’s voice is a good sign. Why is this a good sign, you may ask?
It is a good sign because the devil doesn’t attack those he is not afraid of or those who aren’t dangerous to him. The very fact that the enemy is attacking you is the very proof that God values you.
Through your trials and tribulations, when the enemy is trying to convince you that you are not enough, that proves you are enough for God. But when you give in and believe the lies the enemy tells you, the devil at that moment has more faith in you than you do.
So go, be alone with God. Eat the spiritual manna that He provides for you daily and listen to Him. As it says in Matthew 4:4 “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
That, I believe, is something we should tune into – and turn up.
By Liam Cavicchia, an HPU sophomore majoring in religion with a minor in philosophy.
