Acts 27:39-44

Wow, Paul wasn’t out of the woods yet. If the sea didn’t kill him, the soldiers were going to instead. I am sure their lives were probably on the line if the prisoners escaped, and they didn’t want to risk losing them.

Thank God for the commanding officer who wanted to spare Paul.

The Scriptures do not tell us exactly how far from land they were, but it does say they hit a shoal before reaching shore, so I imagine they still had a little way to go through some turbulent seas. Yet God, true to His word, saved every last one of them. However, also true to Paul’s warning, the ship and cargo were lost. They should have listened to Paul in the first place.

Yet isn’t that sometimes how we learn to recognize the voice of God—and those who hear from Him? We may be uncertain at first, but when things happen just as they were foretold, we have a tendency to listen a little more closely the next time.

I saw an interesting video the other day about hearing the voice of God. In 1 Kings 19:12, when Elijah encountered the Lord, Scripture describes His voice as a “still small voice,” or, as some translations put it, “a gentle whisper.” The problem is, we are constantly bombarded with noise and distractions, and a whisper can be difficult to hear amidst all the noise.

I had the opportunity to see two of my grandkids who live out of town this past week, and my grandson is very shy. He would talk so softly that I would have to shut out all the outside noise—the TV or whatever else was on—in order to hear him. He didn’t need to speak louder; I needed to quiet everything else so I could hear him.

Perhaps the same is true in our relationship with God.

We must learn to deliberately shut off some of the noise around us so we are able to hear His still small voice. Do we value His voice enough to set aside time to hear from Him? I am sure if we did more of that, we could avoid many of the messes that come from failing to listen. Of course, hearing God doesn’t mean we will never encounter storms—Paul was in this storm precisely while walking in God’s will—but hearing His voice will help us know how to navigate them.

I feel we are entering a day and age where hearing His voice is becoming vitally important. Contrary voices seek to drown out the Lord’s voice in our lives, and if we are not careful, the distractions of life can cause us to wander off course. I have heard it said that one of the greatest dangers facing the believer today is deception. If we are not taking time to read His Word, how will we recognize truth from error? The better we know His Word, the better equipped we are to recognize a voice that contradicts it.

There is a lot of talk these days about the importance of “grounding” for our physical health, but even more important is being grounded in God’s Word for our spiritual health. When we are firmly rooted in His Word, we are far less likely to be swept away by every contrary voice that comes along.

Remember, we are all given the same 24 hours in a day. What separates us is how we choose to use them.

Today is Labor Day, a day when many of us are able to take a break from our usual labors. Make sure to carve out some time to turn down the noise, open His Word, and hear from God.

Sometimes God doesn’t need to speak louder—we simply need to make our world a little quieter.