Whose Voice Are You Listening To?

Would you rather listen than read? Listen here.

A Little Nostalgia

I remember back in 1980 something, I stood at the class counter in Dillards Department store with my mom, staring at the most magnificent phone I had ever seen – the Swatch phone. Do you remember this phone? It had that weird triangular shape on one end, and you could talk from the handheld part or the base. I wanted that phone more than anything else, but was told no. It took all I had to not cry as I walked away from that counter. That did not stop me from begging and asking over and over to get it. A bit later, for my birthday, I unwrapped my gift to find the most beautiful pink and turquoise Swatch phone. I adored it.

I spent many hours on that phone talking to my friends and a couple of boyfriends. When it would ring, I would try to guess who it was calling before I answered. You know you have to have the right voice for different people when you answer. Oh, how the times have changed.

But the one thing that has not changed is the influence our friends have on us. Just like in the 80’s when a friend would call and say something exciting or hurtful, it would affect my day just as much as a text or social post does today. I have always let things simmer around in my brain just a little too long and allowed them to fester more than they should.

Genesis 3

When we think about chapter three of Genesis, most of us think about the serpent, followed by the thought of the first sin. This thought then often leads to thinking about the result of that sin and painful childbirth. Well, that is usually the thought process of most women. But chapter three has so much more.

We read of the serpent speaking to Eve. He was speaking truth to her but twisting it just enough to make her second guess herself. Have you ever experienced this? I know I have. I will know without a doubt God has led me to do something, then when a stumbling block rises, I doubt. Then the voices begin. Did God really tell me to do this? Maybe I should have waited and tried later. What if I should have told someone else for them to do it, and so on? It can become a vicious cycle. Instead of stopping to pray here, many of us go to that phone and ask advice from others.

I want you to notice something here. After they both ate from the tree, it says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked” (Genesis 3:7 NIV). They realized they were naked and felt shame. In the same verse we read, they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves, but they still felt shame.

Where Are You?

Then they hear God coming in the cool of the day, and they hide. God says in verse nine, “Where are you?” Adams responds in verse ten with, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” Doesn’t this seem like an odd statement? He had always been naked. But this time they felt shame. So often we too hide from God when we feel shame. We can’t physically hide, but we won’t pray, or go to church. Then we try to ignore Him so we don’t have to face the shame we feel. We build mental walls to hide from Him.

The part that really grabs my heart here in this story is that we just learned in the chapters before that they, Adam and Eve, and us were made in the image of God. With minds that now comprehend sin, they are ashamed at the beautiful way in which God made them.

What does God ask next in verse eleven? He asks, “Who told you that you were naked?” They obviously had listened to another voice because God would never have caused shame to come upon His own creation.

It Is Good

Too many times I have stood in the mirror and felt shame. It’s from something I did in sin, or lies I have believed about myself. We allow the words of others, the pictures on social media, and the words we have spoken over ourselves to cause this same shame. This is not how God designed us. He created us and said it is good. He created us good and that should be enough.

The beauty of this story is that God did not leave them in their shame. He showed them mercy. He clothed them. In verse twenty-one, we read, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” What were these clothes made of? Animal skin. This is the first death in the Scriptures. An animal had to die for them to have their shame covered.

He Covers Our Shame

We are no different. God has come and covered our shame. Jesus, God’s Son, came to earth and died on a cross carrying all of our sin and shame. Through the blood Jesus shed for us, we are now clothed in His righteousness. His righteousness covers our shame. We have to not forget what Jesus did for us. Every time we hear the voices of others that are not bringing us up, we must reject it.

I wrote in a post called “Jesus Filters” on how I pray for God to give me supernatural noise blockers that block out all words but His. I pray for each of us that we can stand firm in the truth. That we can always remember God made us not just good, but very good, and that should be enough. Nothing we do or say or achieve can make us any better. We are good because He made us that way.

Want to learn more about Genesis?

Study this incredible book with me.