words — Blog — Tabitha Deller

His voice silences the noise, settles my mind, and steadies my heart.

For someone who is rarely short on words, I find myself a little quieter these days, especially in this online space. I’m longing for more face-to-face and heart-to-heart conversations, and that doesn’t happen in comment sections or by knee jerk reactions.

The chaos of the online noise is creating a chasm in real life relationships, and for one who craves connection, watching the bantering become bickering because of all the misunderstanding is just exhausting!

So, while I’m not loosing my voice, per se, I am finding my “inside voice” and learning how to use it in hopefully a God honoring, respectful, and effective way.

The external chaos and chatter has definitely influenced my internal dialogue and gray matter, but it has not silenced God’s voice in my heart. In fact, the more I press in to Him, through prayer and praise and opening His Word before opening an app on my phone, the louder and clearer his voice becomes.

His voice silences the noise, settles my mind, and steadies my heart.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭6‬-‭7‬, ‭ESV‬‬)

His voice is way more powerful than mine, or any other one out there online.

So, instead of contributing to the chatter by weighing in on every matter, I’m posturing myself for prayer.

I’m kneeling so I won’t be controlled by what I’m feeling. I’m praying so the Holy Spirit can control what I’m saying.

“Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.” (Proverbs‬ ‭21:23‬, NIV)

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” (James‬ ‭1:19‬, NIV)

My words to Him in prayer are far more powerful than any words online I share.

So, I’ll pray them before I say them, and trust His voice to silence the noise, settle my mind, and steady my heart.

I love the book of Ephesians. Today I spent time in Chapter 4, and it made me think ALOT about our words in light of His Word and our tone in light of His Truth. I encourage you to read it, too. I promise it is more powerful than these words I’m about to share with you.

Allie Beth Stuckey put it this way, “It goes back to pride. We think we are more loving than God, we think we are wiser than God, we think we are more compassionate and empathetic than God, we think we know truth better than God. It’s all about exchanging the God of scripture for the god of self.”

When we think we know better than God, and we abandon His Truth, we will inevitably give in to the deception of the enemy. We will buy into the lie by constantly asking the question the enemy himself asked Eve in the garden, “Did God really say?”

He tries to trick us into thinking our tone is more important than speaking the truth.

He tries try to tempt us to believe our words show others love by coddling and comforting them, even if our words condone their sin.

We’re more concerned about how something sounds than what is being said.