Whose Voice Are You Listening to?

Five years ago when I launched this blog, I had a passion to encourage women through the lens of my story of breaking free from an eating disorder and learning to see myself more as the Lord sees me—as His fearfully and wonderfully made creation worth dying for on a cross.

My body has gone through a plethora of changes over the past three years since having my second son. It has been a colliding of my expectations with reality. It has been bumpy. It has been humbling. And at times it has been a roadblock to me writing on this platform.

What I can so easily tell another woman, I sometimes struggle to believe for myself.

The enemy is crafty. We see in the opening pages of the Bible how he lures Eve into believing she can have more by going against God’s clear instructions. Eve listens, heeding the advice of the enemy over God. But instead of gaining something better, she experiences shame and loss.

Satan speaks in the language of deception, disguising bad as good.

When my eating disorder first flared up as a young teenager, my mind was flooded with lies, and it wasn’t until college when I started down the (sometimes bumpy) path to healing from a life of being imprisoned to lies. It was then that I first began to see that the battle begins in the mind. What we believe, shapes how we live.

Even right now, we live in a noisy, unsettled world with no shortage of differing opinions. What are we filling our minds with? Is what we’re listening to and reading causing confusion or is it breath of encouragement?

Satan is always looking for a foothold to invade our thinking and rob us of the peace and joy the Lord so freely gives.

Even Eve, who lived in perfection, struggled to trust God over the deceiving voice of the enemy. When we’re listening to the wrong voices, the consequences can be devastating:

• Hopelessness
• Confusion
• Discontentment
• Guilt and shame…

But the Lord, in His goodness, gently draws us back to Him. He reminds us that we can set down our heavy load because His yoke is easy. We don’t need to figure everything out, but rather we can trust Him that He already has everything worked out for the good of those who love Him. His voice isn’t critical or confusing, but gentle and seasoned in love.

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” ~ Isaiah 26:3

Though there are many voices we can listen to and even attempt to put our hope in, it is the life-giving voice of the Lord that matters most. By placing our trust fully in Him, daily soaking in the words of Scripture, and praying…we guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and can better fight off the lies. And we are more likely to experience:

• Peace
• Joy
• Hope
• Contentment…

As I’ve attempted to lessen the worldly noise over the past few weeks so that I can tune in more to the Voice of my Good Shepherd, I find myself letting go of my people-pleasing tendencies and I have a renewed desire to please God alone. And as I flip through the pages of Scripture, I’m reminded that I don’t need to have my life altogether to be an effective writer, because God has a history of using imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will.

So, whose voice are you listening to?