When was last time you really listened for quiet?  You know the absolute absence of any noise.  It is nearly impossible anymore to find that.  Try to think of one place where you could go to find absolute quiet.  No noise at all.  No hum, no buzz, no ticking, nothing.  Even now I bet there is noise around you where you are.  I can hear the fan on my computer going!  It is hard to find a place of quiet in our world.  Sometimes it gets so noisy it becomes hard to hear the very thing we are trying to hear!  How many times a day do we say or have someone say to us "what did you say?" because other noise was to loud around.

In our life noise can be a problem in more ways then one.  When we are experiencing a trial we often start discovering that very thing.  We discover how much noise in our life distracts us from hearing what God is trying to tell us and what He is doing in our life.  During a time of trial we want to hear His voice,we want to know what He is up to, and we may find out how much "noise" is preventing us from hearing the very voice we want so desperately to hear.  We begin to fear that God is not with us because we do not hear Him, because we think He is distant.  However Isaiah 41:10 says in part "So do not fear, for I am with you". (Is 41:10 NIV )  He has not left, we just need to be listening.  However part of what happens is we let a lot of noise get in the way.

What kind of noise?  The noise of the situation for one thing.  When life seems at it worst it can be an easy trap for us to focus on the temporal situation rather then our eternal goal and prize.   In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 Paul says  "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Cor 4:17-18 NIV )  We need to remember that God promises us an eternal glory that is far better then that which we are temporarily experiencing now, that which He is now preparing us for.  We cannot let the noise of the situation interfere with that promise.  Yes the reality exists and must be dealt with, but we must not allow that to block out what we know to be true of God and His promises.

Another kind of noise that gets in the way is the noise we create all on our own.  The noise that we decide somehow takes precedence over listening to what God is telling us.  It might be some priority in our life that is important, some mundane task, something fun, something meaningless.  The question is how much of the noise are you creating yourself by placing more importance on other things in your life over God?  When we have so much going on in our life that we squeeze out God, we are creating too much noise.  When our schedules are crammed, and our life is hectic, when our time is so under demand, and everything seems behind, do we listen to all that noise?  What happens when we create enough noise in our lives that we think God is silent?  He is still there, right where He was.  Isaiah 41:10 says it.  We need just to remember that though noise is constant, so is God.  Yes there is always noise, but when we are creating it ourselves we cannot expect that we are going to hear God through it all unless we make a different choice.

We need to people who are listening.  People who are willing and ready to hear.  God does not force His voice upon us.  He asks that we listen and tells us we will know His voice if we do.  Like sheep who know their shepherd’s voice, we will know His for He is our shepherd.  Christ tells us this very thing in John 10:1-5 when He tells us about the Shepherd and His flock.  We need to be people who stop listening to all the wrong noise around us, stop creating noise of our own, and start listening for the shepherd’s voice.  We will know it, and when we hear it we will be able to focus more easily on what is unseen, the eternal glory that outweighs what we are expierencing now.