The below is an excerpt from the first chapter of my new book, Love Be The Loudest: Hearing God’s Voice Above the Noise. You can get yours HERE.
“We are all compelled not by what we believe is right, but by what we love the most.” ~ Ann Voskamp
What do you love most? I’ll go first. I’ve always said my greatest loves are God, family, friends, and my job – in that order. But in the not-so-distant past, my life told another story. I worked nonstop, and when I wasn’t traveling, writing, or making music, I was obsessing over which of those things needed to be done next. When I’d finally switch my brain from business to personal mode, I worried about how people saw me. Was I meeting their expectations? Was I caring enough, useful enough, entertaining enough? Convinced I was failing, I would work even harder. It was exhausting.
My head was so full of all that noise, I found it almost impossible to rest, cut myself a break, or hear God’s voice. I offered up prayers for change, but nothing happened. As the noise grew, so did an awareness that I could not continue living this way. I knew that people-pleasing was not the same as people-loving, and writing and sharing songs about God was not the same as trusting Him. These things that I loved, that I gave power to, were eating me alive. But I didn’t know how to let go.
I started taking time for longer prayers, which were, at first, just one-sided unloading sessions. With each prayer, I had a growing sense that it was time to truly love the One I said I loved most. Time to go deeper – beyond Bible studies with the girls, sporadic “please help” prayers, and reading Scriptures of hope and comfort. It was time to place my whole self in the gentle, holy hands of the One who knew me and loved me with a perfect, uncontainable love.
Since then, I’ve awakened to some exciting truth. God has alternately whispered and shouted to me – through experiences, conversations, and moments alone with Him – that His love is powerful and strong enough to change my life. Only His love can give me the strength and desire to love others well, and free me from the chains of the empty loves I was tethered to.
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Read more and get your own copy of the Love Be The Loudest: Hearing God’s Voice Above the Noise multi-media e-book HERE.
