Jesus welcomed the people, taught them about the Kingdom of God and healed those in need. Luke 9:11

Seeds of the Kingdom

Too Much Noise!

by Cath Taylor

Give all your worries and cares to God for He cares about you. Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone he can devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.
1 Peter 5: 7-9, NLT

It’s not often that I covet Andy’s birthday gifts. Mostly the gifts I receive are much prettier and nicer smelling. Last year, however, Andy chose a gift for his birthday that I now really, really want! At the time I thought “Seriously? That’s what you want more than anything else for your birthday?” But over the passing months I’ve come to see his pure genius!

For Andy’s birthday last year we got him a pair of noise cancelling headphones!
Yes, these headphones are great on planes and in noisy environments when he wants to concentrate, but in a house full of the noise of three growing boys who play loud music, jump around, squawk, fight, play electric guitar and make endless requests for food – this smart invention comes into its own place of outstanding value!

There are times in all our lives where inside our hearts and our heads there is just too much going on! Too much noise, too much uncertainty, too many self-doubts, fears, anxieties and ‘what ifs’. The enemy loves these times and does all he can to keep us locked in these dark places – robbing us of our joy and peace.

The Bible tells us to bring our burdens to the Lord because He cares for us, and what wonderful truth this is! The Lord loves to hear the cries of our hearts and He beckons us always to Himself. However, what about those times where we pour our heart out to the Lord and we know we’ve met with Him, and yet the whisperings of doubt and heaviness stay? What do we do then?

This is the moment we do what we see the Psalmists did and what Paul encourages us to do in his letters. It’s at those times we need our spiritual ‘noise-cancelling headphones’ and instead of focusing and listening to all the negativities that create such a chaotic noise in our heads and hearts, we drown them out by placing our focus on simply praising and worshipping the Lord. We set our focus on who God is, all that He has promised for us, and His unchanging character of love. Having poured our hearts out to the Lord, we step aside from the noise of the enemy and all his doom and gloom, and we instead choose to worship the Lord and declare into the heavenlies all that we have known Him to be and in faith believe that He is!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, please will You meet with me where I am at today. You know all that is going on in my life and all that I carry in my heart. Lord as I bring my cares to You, I choose to trust You with all that I am and all that burdens me. As I choose to trust You with my life, I choose to set my focus on You alone and to simply worship You. remembering who you are and asking you to show me more of your character and truth. In Jesus name, Amen.

Cath Taylor is the Assistant UK National Director. She joined the Ellel Grange team back in 1992 and has served with Ellel Ministries in Australia, the USA and the UK. Cath is married to Andy and they have three sons; Jake, Ben and Isaac.

 

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