Fear No Fear

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life. They shall never perish, nor shall anyone snatch them from My hand” (John 10:27-28, MEV). God loves us enough to speak to us. That’s huge. God. THE Creator. The One who made everything. Who sees everything. Who is everywhere. Think of the vastness of Creation and everything in it. And yet this God loves US. He pays attention to US. That’s an incredible thought and many human beings have totally rejected it because it is so incredible. They may acknowledge that there is a divine being who made everything, but they reject that such a divine being would spend any time on something so insignificant to the universe as the homo sapiens on a single planet. It is a sobering thought. It isn’t new. The Psalmist asked “what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You attend to him?” (Psalm 8:4, MEV). The only way it all makes sense is if we look at it this way: God loved us. He wanted us. He created the entirety of everything with us at the centre in order for us to have everything we need. So the only reason anything exists is that He either wanted us to see it or it serves our needs (orbits and planetary axial tilts in order to give us seasons that enable us to have food; other suns so that we have constellations to mark time with or to give us light; etc). That is a BAFFLING thought. Anyone looking at who they are as an existing creature and then looking around them at the majesty and wonder of Creation will be humbled. God made all of this for us. And a God who made all of this for us, a God who cared about us that much, that is a God who wants to communicate with us. God speaks to us. Yes, speaks to us. His voice is real. It isn’t imaginary. It isn’t made up. It isn’t a symptom of a mental condition. It is REAL. It is different from our internal monologue voice. It is different from the voices around us, the ones that we use to have conversations and replay entertainment in our heads. It is different than the voices we make up for people whom we have never met. It is distinct. It is clear. And it does not dominate the landscape of our minds. God doesn’t force Himself on us. He doesn’t force us to listen to Him. He doesn’t always use an audible voice people around us could hear (although He has done that within human history on occasion). But whether His voice is audible or just for us to hear, He SPEAKS to us. Why go through the effort of creating us and a universe for us to inhabit only to ignore us? That would be a poor kind of love. God IS love. It is a perfect love. He speaks to us. He communicates. He shares, guides, leads, corrects, encourages, and spends time getting to know us and offering us knowledge of Himself. God speaks. Never doubt it. And Jesus promised we would know His voice. We would know the difference between our own mental shenanigans, other voices, and His. We would KNOW it. It is there. Don’t doubt it. Listen to it. Compare what you hear with the Word – God doesn’t contradict Himself or go against His Word. The more you get to know Him, the clearer His voice is. The quieter we are when we spend time with Him – not volume, but distraction-wise – the clearer His voice is. He speaks to us. The Creator of everything speaks to YOU. He does it from love. He does it because He loves YOU. He does it because YOU have worth. He wants to get to know YOU. It’s incredible, but it is TRUTH. God speaks. Take time to listen. Take time to obey. Take time to speak back.