Most of us carry an inner sense of what God’s voice sounds like. We may not think about it consciously, but we imagine a certain tone—gentle or stern, patient or disappointed. Often, without realizing it, we link God’s voice to our behavior. If we’ve done well, we imagine encouragement. If we’ve fallen short, we brace for correction. It’s as if God waits to speak until after we’ve acted, responding to our successes or failures.
But that’s not how God relates to us.
Scripture shows us a God who speaks first. Before we act, before we serve, before we succeed or stumble, God’s voice is already calling out to us. At Jesus’ baptism, before he preached a sermon or healed a single person, the Father declared, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” The delight came before the mission. The joy came before the work.
What if the same is true for us? What if God’s first word toward us is not evaluation but affection? Not critique but joy? When we begin from that place—from a God who delights in us before we lift a finger—everything changes. Prayer becomes less about earning love and more about receiving it. Our actions become responses to grace, not attempts to secure it.
Maybe the invitation this week is simply to pause and listen again. Not for the voice shaped by our fears or failures, but for the God who speaks first. The God whose first word is love.
Smitten With Goodness 