Listen to My Voice

"but you do not believe because you are not my sheep; my sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."

John 10: 26-27

 

As followers of Jesus we are His sheep.  In the scripture above Jesus is addressing the religious leaders of that day as well as Jews who are opposed to His Messianic claims.  They are trying to force Jesus to plainly call Himself God, in order that they may trap Him in the law, accusing blasphemy, and stone Him to death.  Jesus tells them plainly in the scripture above that He has clearly been sent by the Father, and the reason that they do not believe is because they are not His sheep.  In addition to that, they cannot even hear His voice, because they are blinded by the law and self-righteousness, so that they are unable to hear and comprehend what Jesus is truly trying to say to them.  Now in the context Jesus is talking to non-believers.  He is explaining to them that because of their disbelief and their unwillingness to exercise faith, they do not recognize Him as the Son of God.  But, it is very interesting that He also makes a claim about what His sheep, (us as believers), do in response to His voice.  The Jews and religious leaders of that time failed to have faith in the living God because they were not His sheep and couldn't hear His voice, but as believers we do have the access and availability to hear Jesus' voice.  So often I think that we want so badly to hear Jesus' voice in our lives.  As some of us find ourselves in the midst of a crisis, we especially want to hear from God.  For some of us, we may have just lost our jobs, have a family to take care of, and desperately want to hear from God.  Some of us may be struggling in our mental and emotional health due to this pandemic, we are struggling with negative thoughts and outbursts of emotions, and we want to hear from God.  Some of us are in the midst of a failing marriage or close relationship, we are unsure of the next thing to do, and we want to hear from God.  And some of us find ourselves torn away in addictions, shame, guilt, and secret habits, and feel cut off from the voice of God.  We so desperately want to hear Jesus' voice, but how badly will we listen?  Jesus says that His sheep know His voice.  As believers in Christ we have all heard His voice at least once, when He called us to salvation and to be the divine center of our hearts and lives.  The problem is after that, many of us fill our ears with too many other voices.  We have social media, the news, TV shows, YouTube videos, gossiping friends/family, and on and on.  There are so many voices that we are listening to throughout our day, and yet we wonder why we can't hear from our Lord!?  Our lives move at such a fast pace and we think we need to be involved in everything and with everybody, that we begin to lose ourselves in the process.  Not only that but the sheer number of all this other voices leave us feeling exhausted, worn out, anxious, and even depressed.  The worse thing is that we don't leave room for the One voice we ought to be listening for.  As sheep and followers of Jesus, may we take time today and make a choice to turn off all the other voices and listen to our Savior.  Today, make a choice to take control of all that you are listening to, and tune your ears and your heart to the loving voice of Jesus!  Love you all!  Praying for you and yours!  Have a blessed day, it's your choice!