Radio stations are funny places. I had the privilege of working at one a few years ago. Entering the building, there’s a reception desk at the front, offices at the back for station managers, workstations for admin and general business, and rooms for on-air announcers to prepare and write their content. But for me, my favourite place was always the live studio. Walking in for a show, the live studio always has an air of excitement and sometimes, nerves.
Radio stations are unique in the way you can communicate directly, and in real-time with the general public. Every word spoken in the live studio can instantly be heard hundreds of kilometres away. However, each time I was on-air and I spoke into that microphone, I never knew the exact number of people listening, was it a handful or the potential of 100’s of thousands?
While radio announcers have a lot of controls at their fingertips, but one thing they can’t control is who has turned on their radio and who is open and willing to hear the message. I could speak words of truth, words of wisdom, words of empowerment, but unless the listener has chosen to turn on the radio, they will be unable to hear the message.
Over the last couple of years, God has challenged me using this radio analogy in my own growth with Him.
“David, I am speaking words of encouragement. I have scriptures and devotions of blessing for you, I have deliberately put the right people into your life speaking messages I want and need you to hear, but you have the radio turned off. You are not allowing your ears, heart or mind to hear the message I have for you.”
Romans 10:17 says: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Sometimes when my friends heard that I was working on the radio they would tell me they were going to tune into my show. They would turn on their radio, but if they didn’t know what frequency my station was on, they would pick up other radio stations or they would only receive static.
In order to hear, not only did they need to turn on the radio but they had to be correctly tuned in.
Sometimes when we try to tune into the radio we accidentally pick up the wrong signal but thankfully, God is not like that. There is no interference in the message he has for us. He is so deliberate with the calling he has on our lives, and His message is tailored just for us. I am so thankful God sent his Holy Spirit as a way we can tune into God’s word and purpose for our lives.
God knows us so intimately. As it says in Matthew 10:30, “Even the hairs on our head are numbered”.
God knows you deeply, and has a purpose specifically for your life. We can purposefully pray and ask the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and prepare us to tune into the word of God for our lives.
Keeping with the radio analogy, you also can’t get a radio signal without a radio tower. When we move too far away from the radio tower, the signal can become difficult to hear. The same is true with God. The closer we are to God, the clearer and easier it is to hear his word. God wants to speak his truth and promise into our lives. He wants us to walk daily with him. God wants a real, intimate relationship with us.
It says in Psalm 65:4 “How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.”
Some days, when working on radio, there might be a strange weather event. The radio station where I worked was only designed to transmit signals for around 200 km. However, on days when there were strong winds or major cloud cover, the radio travelled way past the typical range, and we would get phone calls from listeners over 800km away!
We may sometimes underestimate the reach and impact that we are having in the lives of those around us. We may feel like we are just teachers impacting only the 28 lives in our classroom. However, when God is with us, we can’t underestimate the impact we can have on our community. When God creates the right atmosphere, our simple encouragement and perceived simple words have the potential to reach further then we ever thought possible.
Like a radio tower radiating it’s message out to a community, let us be people who encourage and uplift one another. Let’s pray that God will use us to broadcast his love others like never before.
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