I guess the clue is in the first verse of John’s Gospel, where we are told that ‘In the beginning was the Word’. ‘The Word’ is of course Jesus, and God, who is a great communicator, speaks to us through all that Jesus is and was, said and did. He speaks through His written word the Bible and also through creation, Romans 1:20 and Psalm 19:1-4, and.
We have a speaking God, and one who created us, as spirit beings, capable of listening and hearing His voice, John 10:3. Our God is not however a dictator. He doesn’t just give edicts from on high, or tell us ‘keep quiet, listen to me, and do what I command’. The astonishing thing is that we have a God who loves two way communication, a God who gave us the gift of speech and who ‘loves to hear our voice’ too. Song of Songs 2:14.
Over the years Mark and I have been involved with lots of couples and people seeking to build a better relationship, and no surprise here, better communication has been one of the main keys in people achieving that goal. Using our voice, and expressing to one another what is going on inside, our inner thoughts and feelings in a safe and good way, aswell as listening, can be life changing.
Some people are good at using their voice to say what they want, but then they are not so good at the listening. Then there are those who for some reason, don’t use their voice and so what they are thinking, feeling, and wanting stays hidden. This can be because they are afraid of the reaction they might get, or sometimes because they are ashamed of what they might say, and sometimes simply because they don’t think that the other person is interested or will listen to what they have to say.
If that is the case, we can see that the relationship will be faltering, badly and sadly, for both parties. But what about us and God? Are we ever too afraid or too ashamed to tell Him what is on our hearts, or maybe we feel there is no point, we are too insignificant or too troublesome for Him to have time for us. Or perhaps we feel, “well He knows anyway there is no point”. If we recognise any of those thoughts, then there are clearly some lies that we need to repent of believing ( rethink with the Holy Spirits help! See Blog 82).
We only have to look through any Bible concordance for the word ‘voice’ to realise how important two way communication is to God. Let us thank God today that we have a voice that He wants to hear, and a God who will listen and respond to us with kindness and compassion. He wants us to ‘pour out our hearts to Him’, Psalm 62:8. God can handle our perplexity, and even our anger, if we are coming with hope in our hearts, to find comfort and resolution, like Job. He won’t be angry or upset and He will help us to work out, for our good, what we give to Him with our voice.
Even if He needs to rebuke or correct us for what we ‘pour out’, it will come with love and an impartation of grace, and like Job, we could find ourselves saying, ‘my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you’, Job 42:5, because this kind of honest communication brings us closer to Him, and increases our connection and friendship with Him, and He loves it.
One final word on all this. We know that we can say whatever is on our hearts to Him, but remember that ‘out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks’ Matthew 12:34. So let us thank Him that we can say anything to Him but make sure that our voice is sweet. Pouring out our heart in honesty is good but just grumbling and complaining is a sign of unbelief. So let us make sure that we are honouring Him with the fruit of our lips giving Him praise too.
This is why approaching Him with thanksgiving at all times is so important and it is, after all, what these blogs are all about. Heaven, where He dwells, is full of worship, so let us be sure that all our communications with our wonderful Heavenly Father are also liberally sprinkled with our worship, thanksgiving and adoration too. He loves to hear our voices in these ways too.
