The noise of this world is sometimes so loud, it is often hard to hear the voice of God.
Searching for a topic to submit, I found myself struggling. I had begun with prayer, but admittedly between kids, work and the news, I was distracted in that prayer. I hadn’t even opened my Bible yet. One could say, I had not prayed in earnest.
A million topics came to mind. All controversial. All noise of this world. Then I escaped to a place of solitude outside, prayed in earnest for God to help me find my words, and opened my Bible.
I am one who believes God guides us when we randomly open the Bible if we are willing to listen. I first opened to Lamentations 1:7: “In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into the enemy hands, there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction.”
Well. Given the topics I was trying to avoid, I bookmarked this verse and proceeded to let my
Bible flop open to another verse. Hopefully one less controversial.
Proverbs 3:21 “My son, preserve sound judgement and discernment, do not let them out of your sight.”
My eyes glanced upward on the page.
Proverbs 3:13 “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding.”
These verses were leading me somewhere, but all that kept coming to mind was the noise of this world I wanted to avoid today. I quickly wrote the words at the top of this blog. As I wrote, a locust began to loudly buzz. He went through his whole chorus, and I shook my head, annoyed, finding it ironic I was trying to escape the noise, and here it is chattering at me. I stared at the words I wrote:
The noise of this world is sometimes so loud, it is often hard to hear the voice of God.
Boom! There goes the locust again, as I read “the voice of God”.
It wasn’t hard to hear. In fact, it was so loud it hurt my ears. And it stopped when I recognized the voice of God was coming to me in a locust, an often vile creature who He typically sends in a plague.
Um. What exactly does that mean, God? Are you about to imbue upon me some righteous wisdom I may share with the world via a locust? Are you there? I’m listening now.
Silence.
No locust. No clarity. Alas, I am not one of His prophets after all. I will have no grand words to bestow upon you from Him, only my interpretation from my relationship with Him and what I know His clarity for me has been in the past.
When we earnestly call on Him for help, He answers. Loudly. We just need to be willing to recognize His voice when He speaks.
Even if it is through a locust.