Why does the voice of the devil seem so much louder than God’s?

Fat tears slid down my cheeks. My heart felt like a big rock sinking down to the bottom of a dark lake. "You are a failure, you will never change." The words echoed in my heart. My mom kneeled down next to me and tried to comfort me. She encouraged me to listen to what God was saying and not the devil. I looked up and asked my mom a question that had been bothering me for quite some time. "Why does the voice of the devil seem so much louder than God’s?” I don't remember her response, but I did learn some of the answers to my question. It has taken me years to begin to understand. Even now, it is still hard for me sometimes not to listen to the devil’s deceiving voice. Time and time again I would hear the devil’s lies and I would plummet head first into a depression. I began to ask God why it was so hard to hear His voice. This is what I have learned. To hear God’s voice, we must first know what it sounds like, then we must realize that it may not always be the loudest or clearest. Then we must realize that we live in a world with many distractions. We must try and ignore those.

Before the great invention of caller ID, people would just pick up the phone and not know who was on the other line. If they were familiar with the person on the other line, they would recognize the voice and continue chatting. I remember when I was younger, my friend and I used to answer each other’s phones and try to trick people. I would always know which friends knew her best because they weren’t tricked by my voice and they would ask to speak with her. I think it’s the same way with God. To know His voice we must know Him. How can someone get to know God? By reading His word. In II Tim 3:16 it says, “All scripture is God-breathed…” That means that when we read the Bible, we are reading the words of God. In Jeremiah 6:10 God says, "To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it." To know and hear God’s voice we must first know His words. Once we know His words, we can know His character. When we know His character, it will be much easier to recognize His voice.

I have heard people say that they would believe in God if He would either show His face to them, or if He spoke loudly and clearly to them. I must confess that many times I’ve wished that God would speak to me in a booming voice and make me to do what He wants. I’ve come to realize that if He made me do things, I would become like a robot and I wouldn’t learn to trust him or to really love Him. God knows that as humans our first reaction many times can be to go along with the loudest or clearest voice we hear. God doesn’t want us only to obey him because we think we should or because if we don’t, we will go to Hell. God wants us to obey Him out of our love for Him and our desire to obey Him.

I believe that another reason the devil’s lies tend to be easier to hear than God’s truth is because there are so many distractions in this world. The devil can use many tools like TV, music and movies to keep us from getting to know God better and from spending time with Him. We have to be aware of this and be on guard. We have to evaluate our time and see what it is that could be stealing all our time away from us.

These three points that I have made are tools that can help us. We must know God’s character to help us discern His voice. We must understand that His voice may not be the loudest voice we hear, and we must try to limit the distractions that are in our culture that divert us from God. This is an ongoing battle. We have to realize that the closer we get to God, the more the devil is going to want to ruin us. The good news is that the closer we are to God, the more we can find protection in Him.