THE VOICE
[8-minute read]
The Bible recounted a time when the Jewish community was under the threat of being wiped out, and a privileged queen of Jewish descent was hesitant to plead for mercy with the King because of the risks involved (Esther 4). In her defense, she argued that it was not time (v11). Very quickly, Mordecai, her uncle, issued her this fiery reprimand: “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Don’t blame her. Not that she did not care: she was ‘deeply distressed’ (v4) when she heard that Mordecai was out there making known his discontent about something. Twice, she sent her attendants to check on him. She did the right thing - from a safe distance. But she drew the line when it came to putting herself out there to advance the matter, not today, not this way, not my style.
Aren’t we all like that sometimes? We prefer to wisely wait till the intensity of a situation subsides so we could tell others how much we really cared and felt for them.
We like to think that silence is protective and preserves peace. There are many people who would go to great lengths to avoid conversations with others and also avoid being detected as avoidants! In some communities, people hold up silence as a virtue to suppress the voice of reason and progress. We often allow others a right to speak up in a way that we deprive ourselves of. But if anyone thinks that not speaking up when it matters makes us more neutral, less contentious, less misunderstood, and safer, we are wrong.
Today, more than ever, God wants to remind us to use our God-given gift called the voice. He wants us to develop a voice to pray, to praise and worship Him, to bring a message of encouragement and hope to others, to be a voice of courage and integrity for the voiceless, and most of all, to be a voice of witness for God.
Let’s take a closer look at the five ways we can use our voice.
The Voice to Pray
Prayer is a conversation with God that we can have anywhere, anytime, regardless of how we are feeling. The Bible recorded many instances of men and women praying in the face of every imaginable situation. Today, we benefit from their prayers because they humanize our life experiences and show us that nothing is ever off-topic with God. They also tell us that God is not silent and impotent just because we don’t hear His audible voice. As a matter of fact, the rewards of praying with faith in God are breakthroughs, miracles, and victories that we cannot even begin to imagine possible.
The Voice To Praise And Worship
Believers should be free and unashamed to tell God how much He means to us, and thank Him endlessly for what He has done for us and what He has been to us. It is a relationship that thrives on free and open expressions of love – both ways! If we are uncomfortable worshipping the Lord, it means we are uncomfortable with God. Why would you feel uncomfortable telling God that you love Him, or that there is no one like Him? It is the most spiritual thing you can do as a child of the living God!
But if you are unsure of what exactly to say to God, imitation is a good place to start practicing. Follow the conversations recorded in the Bible like Psalm 145:1-7. Don’t read silently! It’s not a chant. Say it audibly with conviction, and see how your faith and passion grow!
Praising God – whether it is done privately or with other believers – build spiritual muscles that we need to live healthy and strong spiritual lives. Even our private praise and worship will change our corporate worship when we are with other believers. Not your style? Feel awkward doing it? If we only do what feels natural to us, we will never experience the life that God has created for us.
Psalm 34:1 (New Living Translation) is a good motto to remember: “I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak His praises.”
3/5 The Voice to Bring Hope
Yes, many of us have been hurt by the human voice because we had believed what we heard and it had led to broken promises and disappointments. At the same time, we have also been hurt where there was only silence instead of a human voice of comfort reaching out to us when we needed it most. There are people we wished would speak up more and there are people we wished would learn to develop greater self-awareness and restraint.
However, we cannot deny the power of the human voice to comfort, to encourage and to bring hope.
Jonathan went out to David, when the latter had to remove himself from the ominous threats of Jonathan’s father, so he could personally assure him, “My father Saul will not lay a hand on you.” How comforting!
An unnamed servant girl passed a hopeful prescription to her mistress so that her husband, Naaman, a five-star general, could find healing. As a servant, she could have remained silent and ‘know her place’ among the lowly staffers in the household.
In Acts 3:6, the disciples Peter and John stopped for a one-minute destiny-changing conversation with a man who was born crippled.
Everything these people said are now biblical legend, not because they were profound, mystical, or esoteric. They are now legacy because they chose to be the voice for people in despair.
Silence robs us of exercising our God-given power to bring life to our families and communities. Silence deprives friendships of the nourishment that is needed to deepen the human connection necessary for our own spiritual well-being. If there is something God has placed on your heart to bring hope to someone, don’t stifle it. Give it your voice!
A Voice For The Voiceless
Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” In other words, don’t be a bystander if your involvement can help advance someone’s career, if your time to craft a recommendation on someone’s LinkedIn profile assures an out-of-work person that he has value, or if spontaneously grabbing coffee to hear someone out means so much to the person who is a minority facing the realities of veiled discrimination on a daily basis.
You could be the only voice that can bring impact and make a difference in that person’s life when too many would rather remain silent to avoid the embarrassment of initiating uncomfortable conversations.
The Voice to Witness
It's easy for us to think that God is good, to feel that He is good, but until we say it aloud, they are silent private opinions, not personal convictions of our faith. That’s why many Christians struggle to talk to people outside the faith about the goodness of God in their lives because they feel uncomfortable with taking deliberate efforts to convert their private thoughts into personal testimonies.
Think about it: good health requires deliberate effort to stick to a good diet. Good careers demand conscientious commitment to achieve given key performance indicators. Good vacations are a result of putting time and detail into the planning. Yet we say, spiritual things cannot be forced! What a load of baloney.
Let’s not be closet Christians. Let’s be God’s storytellers, continually testifying of who He is to us and what He has done for us. If you have not recently shared with anyone about God’s goodness (beyond a single text message, “God is good!”), you may want to start journaling your stories so that you can build a library of content for life-changing conversations.
After Peter and John saw how God healed the man who was ‘lame from birth’, they said: “We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20).
We never know when God will nudge us to have a conversation with someone or anyone. When God nudged Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage” – in modern-day, it’s like ‘go over to the owner of the Bentley and try not to look like a valet.’ Philip could have protested – anyone but not that guy, not that carriage, not that place, not that time, not that way, not my style of engagement with people – but thank God, he did not miss out on an amazing experience that God orchestrated.
Maybe conversations don’t come easily for you. Even if you need a longer time to think through what to say, even if you have to write it down first, even if you fumble and feel feeble starting something, do it. Throughout the week, ask the Lord to open your eyes and ears to be the voice to bring hope, to edify, to instruct, to comfort, to build humanity, and demonstrate God’s divine love and compassion.
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 5 March 2022.
