Voices

I often pray for discernment, asking God to help me to know His voice above all.  He says that His sheep know His voice, yet there are times when I'm not so sure that I do because what I hear does not happen or seems wrong to me.  We have so many voices playing in our heads...God's voice, the voice of satan whispering temptation and telling us we're not good enough, the voice of our own desires and sinful flesh, and the voices of all those who may have spoken curses over your life telling you that you were no good.  You can hear one voice say that you're beloved and beautiful and wonderfully made, and not believe that it is God because you've been taught that God is an all consuming fire and you're expecting to hear Him tell you what all is wrong with you and why you can't ever be good and to get your act together.  I've wrestled so much with this and what was of God and what wasn't.  What was condemnation and what was conviction. 

I did a study on condemnation vs. conviction once and came across a quote that put it in perspective for me.  It said:  Condemnation shows you what is wrong.  Conviction shows you how to correct it.

So I kept feeling guilty and wrong about things.  IE: The old tithing debate...tithe on net or gross.  I asked here, I asked in church, I prayed.  I got no clear answers.  I kept thinking I'm not doing something right or I wouldn't keep wondering about this.  But I was getting no answers as to HOW to pay on gross at a bare minimum sustainable level of living.  So another time I was studying what faith is, and how to try and increase my faith.  And I saw another quote that said that when we need to make a decision on something and we're not sure if it's right or wrong, that we make a decision and pray in faith believing that we're making the right decision and that if not, God will somehow show us in time.

So I put those two together and stopped warring about my tithing and other things.  I would pray: Lord, until You show me differently, I'm just going to pray, in faith believing, that I am doing the right thing so I can stop struggling with condemnation.

In thinking on this blog last night that I wanted to write, it also came to me:  "So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin" (Romans 14:22-23)

We complicate things by deciding what is or isn't sin based on our own understandings.  Thinking that to pay on net isn't right because we feel we should pay on gross.  But the one paying on net needs to believe they are in right standing with God and keep it between them and God and not be condemned by what others believe.  Have faith that you're doing the right thing, unless and until God shows you differently. 

And those voices that you hear?  Shrug them off unless the voice is uplifting, loving, and showing you a way.  If the voice does not provide you with a solution, then you may simply be under condemnation.