What Signals Are We Sending?

God can tune into our words and even our thoughts. What does He hear when He tunes into us? Is it pleasant to Him, or does He feel like turning the dial?

Ever find yourself stuck in the car, whether on a trip or just on your way to work, looking for something on the radio to listen to? You scan through the dial, hoping to find a channel that has good reception, with a clean, clear sound and a song or story with a good message.

Many stations, though, are not sending out a message that is appropriate to listen to. So we move on to the next station, hoping to find something worth our time—something that will be pleasing to our ears and beneficial to our well-being.

What signals are we putting out?

Imagine yourself as one of those radio stations. If God was scanning through the dial, what would He hear coming over the airwaves of our hearts? Would He be pleased with what He hears? Would He smile and say, “That’s a sweet sound. I think I’ll turn it up!” Or would He rush to change the dial, to find something a little less offensive to His ears?

One key to sending a signal that will be pleasing to God is for us to stay tuned to His wavelength. We need to stay close to Him, learn more about what is important to Him and grow in faith in Him.

We are faced with many challenges in this life; and as we all know, we do not always pass the many tests that we are faced with. In 1 Kings 19:2-3 we see Elijah, the prophet of God, fleeing from a single woman, Jezebel, after slaying over 400 prophets of Baal. She was a powerful, vicious, evil queen; but Elijah’s response showed a lack of faith. He failed that test. Yet God gave him another chance. Elijah rose again after being strengthened by an angel of God and continued on and grew in faith and obedience.

How do we stay tuned in?

What will we do with the trials that come our way? How will we respond, and what will we do to rectify things when we fail to respond correctly? While going through trials, how can we bring a more pleasing sound to God?

Well, for one thing, we can learn a lot from the persistent widow in Luke 18. She was willing to go continually before an unrighteous judge until he finally granted her petition. She apparently, through great determination and due diligence, won her case.

Jesus used this example to teach us endurance and faith (without implying that God needs to be worn down in order to win our case). By knowing that we will be avenged, that our troubles will not last forever, we can find peace. God has promised it to us! But we must believe. Christ said, “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7-8).

That is up to you and me. Satan is doing his very best to convince us that there is no hope, and he seeks to cloud the airwaves with distortions. He wants to keep us discouraged.

How we respond to the many trials in this life—the amount of confidence we will put in His hands versus trusting in our own abilities to fix our own problems—will ultimately decide whether He will find faith when He comes! How much confidence we will put in Him, rather than ourselves, will determine the success we will have. It will determine whether He will find us doing His work, with passion, with zeal and confidence, with determination and love for one another!

Please don’t touch that dial!

The way to true success in our relationship with God is the same as it’s always been. It lies in our putting our confidence more and more in Him. To get through our trials, we need growing faith that He loves us, that He cares for us and that He is working out His plan.

Continual growth in these areas will make us better transmitters. It will give us a better signal because we will have more peace of mind. This will send a clearer message to our Great God that we are serious and that nothing will stand in our way!

Let us give Him good reason when He tunes us in to want to stay there, so that we can tell Him with a smile: “Don’t go away, Father, we’ll be right back for more of Your favorites. Please don’t touch that dial!”

David Wise operates a small painting contracting company and attends the Miami, Florida, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.

For more about our relationship and communication with God, see the section on “Prayer, Fasting and Meditation” on the LifeHopeandTruth.com website.