I Hear You, but Do You Hear Him?

Psalm 4: 2, 3, 7, 8 (MSG) “You rabble—how long do I put up with your scorn? How long will you lust after lies? How long will you live crazed by illusion? Look at this: look who got picked by God! He listens the split second I call to him. Why is everyone hungry for more? "More, more," they say. "More, more." I have God's more-than-enough, more joy in one ordinary day than they get in all their shopping sprees. At day's end I'm ready for sound sleep, for you, God, have put my life back together.”

Will Gilmer- Rumors, lies and gossip; why do we enjoy spreading so much of it? Why do we take pleasure in hurting people with our words? Why do we “lust after lies” and are hungry for more?

Sin is a very powerful disease; there are many times when we don’t realize the depth of its grip on us or the affect that it has on our lives. I believe our sin nature is what allows us to take pleasure in spreading lies about someone else (even if it is under the guise of soliciting prayer). The nature we are born with delights to see someone else in misery and takes joy that someone has fallen in some area of their life. The nature we are born with is very twisted and depraved; Satan, who is the epitome of depravity, takes full advantage of this nature that we are born with and uses our carnal natural desires to draw us into these deadly conversations over and over again; with no regard to who we hurt or the relationships we damage.

If you have been the victim of one of these attacks don’t lose heart. Oh, I am not saying that the words that are spoken will not hurt, they will; what’s being said about you may be true and constant reminders of your actions will cause you grief,  but look at the verse of Scripture above, look at what the psalmist is saying, “Look at this: look who got picked by God! He listens the split second I call to him.” Do you see it; do you see who got picked by God? Do you see who God listens to? He doesn’t listen to the liar or the person who is spreading the gossip; He listens to the one who was being scorned (talked about).

Why would God pick the scorned people who are being talked about; why would God choose to listen to you even if some part of what people were saying about you was true… “Then Levi (Jesus newly appointed disciple) gave a big dinner for Jesus at his house. Many tax collectors and other people were eating there, too. But the Pharisees and the men who taught the law for the Pharisees began to complain to Jesus' followers, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick. ³² I have not come to invite good people but sinners to change their hearts and lives." (Luke 5:29-31) Jesus was eating with people who were used to being talked about, misunderstood and lied on. Jesus was spending intimate time with people who the religious people of that time would have never spent time with; Jesus was spending time with people who needed their lives put back together because of the nature they were born with (sin nature) and what was being said about them.

So Why would God listen to you? God would listen to you because…

·        He Cares for you…” Give all your worries to him, because he cares about you (1 Peter 5:7; NCV)”.

·        Those who rely on His grace cannot brag about their lives or talk bad (gossip) about the lives of others… “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses; chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:26-30; MSG).

·        He wants you to have His joy, peace and to enjoy life in all the fullness that He intended it to be…  “I have told you these things so that you can have the same joy I have and so that your joy will be the fullest possible joy… I leave you peace; my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does. So don't let your hearts be troubled or afraid… A thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I came to give life—life in all its fullness.” (John 15:11; 14:27 and 10:10, NCV), because He has put your, “life back together”, through His grace.