“My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish-ever!  No one will snatch them out of My hand.  My father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all.  No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  The Father and I are one.”    John 10:27-29 HCSB

I know I am telling my age, but that’s ok.  Do you remember the days before caller ID?  In those days, the phone rang and it was a surprise as to who was on the other end.  Now I remember being a teenager and running when the phone rang, because at that time the phone was my lifeline to my friends.  There were no cell phones, no internet, no social media. When I wasn’t with my friends, our only means of contact was the old landline phone.  Telemarketers weren’t such a nuisance back then, you could make prank calls anonymously, it was a different time.

But today we have caller ID.  Our cell phones have our contact information plugged in, so we can glance and see who is calling if they are added as a contact.  Our home phones have caller ID that even flashes up on our television screens.  We know who is calling or at least we know from which number they are calling.  We don’t have to listen to an answering machine to screen our calls, we can simply look at the caller ID.

Which calls do you answer?  Some people answer all calls because they just can’t let the phone ring and not answer it.  Some answer because they are lonely and just want to talk to somebody.  But we must be very careful about which calls we answer.  We must carefully screen our calls. You see we are all sinners (Romans 3:23).  But if we draw near to God, He draws near to us (James 4:8) and when this happens, He calls us to salvation.   When we answer that call, God makes us new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17).  When we become new creatures in Christ, we can hear and understand what God is calling us to do.  We hear His voice and we know Him. We are His sheep. When this happens, it infuriates the devil and he begins calling us back to our old sinful lives.  This is the call that we must not answer.

An example of this in my life is church attendance.  For years I was content to go to church once or twice a month.  My mom had taken me to church every time the doors were open as a child, and as an adult I felt I could go when it was convenient and all would be good.  I skipped Sunday school, because I thought that was just for kids.  When I drew near to God, after my way wasn’t working so well, He drew me back into church every Sunday and Wednesday and yes, even Sunday school.  But the devil would start working on me Sundays as soon as I got up.  He would put obstacles in my way.  I couldn’t find my keys or I couldn’t find one shoe, or my outfit didn’t work.  One such Sunday I had finally gotten it all together and got in my car.  I headed toward my church to find the road blocked by a large truck.  I took a detour only to find the second road that I took on my detour also blocked.  I had to go about ten miles out of my way.  At the second road block, I cried out to God to help me.  I also told the devil, “out loud”, that I may get to church as it was dismissing but I was going, so whatever other blocks he put before me would not stop me.  I was determined that I would get there, even if I had to go 50 miles out of my way.  There were several Sundays after that where the devil tried to stop me, but I declared that I was going.  I refused to answer the devil’s call to stay home and curl up on my couch and watch Hallmark movies all day.  Instead, I answered God’s call to come to His house and worship Him. The devil still sometimes tries to keep me out of Sunday school and church on Sunday, but we both know I am already on the line with God.  I begin my Sunday morning, as every morning, with prayer.  And though the devil tries to break through on call waiting, I am not going to answer his call.

Any time I have answered God’s call, it has brought me peace and joy.  Answering the devil’s call has only brought temporary joy followed by extreme heartache.  There is a lot of noise in today’s world.  It’s like a telethon where you hear all this ringing in the background.  But we must be able to separate God’s voice from all the other noise.  We must hear His voice and know Him.  In order to do this, we must establish a close relationship with Him.  When we are in a close relationship with someone, their name is in our phone.  Their name pops up on our caller ID.  We know them and we answer their call.  I ask you to draw near to God today.  Get to know Him and answer when he calls.  He’s calling you to a better life here on earth and a wonderful eternal life with God the Father.  I beg of you to do yourself a favor and answer His call.

Have a great day!