Voices in my head

I have two very different voices I hear in my head whenever I have trials and tribulations going on in my life.

The first one is the voice of truth; it tells me that God loves me, wants the best for me, and wants to take care of me. It tells me that regardless of how I feel about a situation, I can know — because of promises that God makes over and over again in scripture — that if I just invite God into a situation, God will give me whatever I need to take care of whatever is going on. This voice is the voice of my faith, the voice of truth, and it is where I wish I stayed all of the time.

The other voice is the voice of my fear, doubt, and depression. It tells me that nothing good can come from my bad situation, that everything isn’t going to be okay, or that while God could definitely change things if God wanted to, I often doubt that God will.

Slow but sure I am learning, when these voices compete for my attention, that I can change which one I decide to listen to; notice I said “decide”. It becomes an act of will, regardless of feelings, to believe God’s word. I’ve heard that feelings aren’t facts, and in truth, this has been my experience. My prayer is often, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”

The part of my faith that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life: Comforter, Counselor, Friend. Jesus told us before he left that he would send us a Helper. As I grown in my faith, I’m learning that the Holy Spirit is the voice of truth that I’m hearing. That other voice is just me, trying to fight the world on my own, which of course never works. Even when I don’t know how to pray, or what to pray for, I can know that the Holy Spirit is helping me more than I can know! And I'm so grateful for that!!