Friday, April 8, 2011 - Use Your Inside Voice, Please!

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, 

that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 

1 John 3:1    

    During the last 30 years of working with and rearing children, I've learned more euphemisms than most politicians can think up in a week. The cutest one I've heard recently was the direction to "sit on your pockets" which rings much sweeter than many other ways of saying the same thing.  Another well-worn direction is "use your inside voice" (and save the whooping and hollering for the playground!). 
     Like children, our voices and cries grow shrill and loud when we panic, feel alone, or need to vent. What circumstances push your panic button and increase your volume as if God isn't living in you? When it's money, use your inside voice to whisper His Name because our Father's Word says,

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, 

because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." 

Hebrews 13:5

Maybe we panic when we feel forgotten, alone, or disconnected but God says,

"I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, 

and I will bring you back to this land. 

I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." 

Genesis 28:15

Making important decisions puts many of us in a tail-spin (oops, pocket-spin), but we don't find answers by screaming. Because, "We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. . .And so we know and rely on the love God has for us" (Heb. 4:13,16), we can calmly use our inside voices to commune with the One Who loves us beyond reason or explanation. 

Father, I praise You for holding Your Holy ear next to my mind and heart so no yelling or other attention-getting antics are necessary. Increase our faith so we respond to all our panic buttons by whispering Your Name in confidence that You hear because You're nearer than near. 

In the Name of Jesus Christ Who "is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb.13:8)

Inspired by Jesus Calling 

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