John 3:5–8 ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’ (v8)
The word ‘listen’ means both to hear and obey. Learning to discern God’s voice from amongst the myriad sounds that surround us today is challenging. Of course, listening is not simply through our ears. What we observe we may choose to copy, realising we have listened to a pattern for life. What we read we may take as our truth and so choose to disregard alternative perspectives.
In other words, everything we encounter from the moment we wake to the time we drift off to sleep is a message that seeks to capture our attention and inform our understanding and behaviour. Such has become our fascination with fake news, that there is a host of fact-checking websites, but of course, how do I know I can trust them?
Jesus advises Nicodemus, a man in search of Truth that, like the wind, authenticity is difficult to establish both where it comes from and where it departs to. It is part of our Christian responsibility to learn how to take hold of God’s truth. This is never formulaic but requires us to go in search of it within God’s Word.
Here we find a rich resource where we need the Spirit’s insight to perceive beyond the obvious sense of the words on each page to discover the eternal and life-giving hope embedded within them. Like Nicodemus, the truth can initially lie beyond rationality, and our job is tirelessly to search for God’s way within God’s Word.
SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER:
Ezek. 37:1–14; Eccl. 11:1–6; Mark 4:26–34; 1 Cor. 2:11–16.
AN ACTION TO TAKE:
Where do you source your truth from? How do you decide between
the many voices directed at you? Learn to listen to God’s Spirit.
A PRAYER TO MAKE:
‘Lord, guide me in my listening so that I can discern Your truth amongst
the incessant noise created by so many voices directed at me. Amen.’
