Should I change jobs? Should I move? Should I date this person? Should I help with this ministry? Should I go on this trip? Should I buy this house? Should I invest here? Should I go back to school? We can be inundated by so many decisions. A prevailing question for those that involve God in those decisions is “What is God’s plan?”or “What does God want me to do?” We are desperate to hear from the Lord on so many things. We pray, we read, we try and figure it out. Sometimes we begin to get a sense as to which way we should go or what we should do, but then we’re just not sure. We want confirmation. We hesitate to move without it. When we’re unsure, is it ok to ask God for a sign?
Although we should not demand or even expect it, it is sometimes absolutely fine to ask for a sign. We see this in the Book of Judges in the life of Gideon. Gideon asked… and God obliged. Twice. He didn’t get angry. He didn’t give Gideon a hard time for asking. God saw Gideon’s heart in the question and was more than willing to provide a sign as he knew Gideon wanted to do the right thing. He wanted to honor God and do the best for his people. God even provided a third sign later without even being asked!
“Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece,but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.” Judges 6:36-40
Patricia Shirer writes, “[Gideon] was cautious and careful, not wholly doubtful and disbelieving”. It’s an issue of motivation. Behind caution is a desire to obey. We seek confirmation on what we believe we’ve heard, especially if it sounds odd and/or it could put others at risk, because we want to get it right. We are intent on action, we want to obey, but we want to be sure that by acting on what we believe we’ve heard, we really ARE obeying God. In contrast, behind doubt,whether it is doubt in God or doubt in ourselves, is often a desire to delay or get completely out of doing something we’ve been asked to do or give up. In fact, often in doubt, we have received a VERY clear directive, but because we don’t want to do it, we keep asking for more signs, actually hoping that they WON’T come. We don’t want to obey, especially if it’s hard or doesn’t make sense. We don’t want to trust God unless we understand. We don’t want to act unless we agree. Or at least unless we have lightning bolts and neon signs!
Often we want God to just speak louder! But I heard a profound thing about that the other day. God does not have to shout, because he is so close. We wouldn’t think it polite to scream in the ear of someone right beside us, would we? Funny enough, that’s how I met one of my best friends (by accidentally shouting in his ear), but generally speaking, no, of course we wouldn’t! God’s closeness reveals the intimacy he has and/or wants with us.There are times when we are called to pursue God, to go find him (e.g., Deut.4:29, Jer. 29:13, Matt 6:33). But typically, he is sitting right beside us eager to listen and eager to reveal himself and give us guidance (James 1:5). If you aren’t hearing him, or at least think you’re not, maybe it’s because he’s already told you (even if it’s just “wait on me”) and so right now there is nothing else to say. If we don’t listen to him when he does speak, we may lose sensitivity to his voice!
So is it ok to ask for a sign? It all depends. There are two areas of my life right now that I am pretty consistently asking the Lord about. One, God has been clear, it makes sense, I know it… and I’m just procrastinating. Well, that’s bad on me. No, it’s not ok, in that situation, to ask for more signs. In fact, it shows my lack of faith, laziness, fear, and frankly, just disobedience. But in another area, what God is asking of me makes far less sense, and the impact of getting it wrong could be significant to me and others. So from time to time, as I slowly move forward on it, or hold back when I’m told to do that, I do ask for confirmation. In that situation, I believe God is blessed by my commitment to want to get it right. And in that,he has given me many, many signs to help ease my fears and confirm that I’m on track.
Now, what do you do if you think you’ve heard, you move forward, and then all signs begin to make you think you’ve been flat out wrong (you must have misinterpreted the sign)? That’s a hard one for me. But I’m learning two things: 1) consider the source of the “new” information that caused you to doubt and 2) remember the last thing you KNOW you heard from the Lord. Just as I gained new confidence last week pertaining to “Issue #2”… and began to move forward in that confidence… I was OVERRUN with doubt. But you know what prompted that doubt? Something I saw on Facebook. Something that could be interpreted a million different ways. I don’t really know anything. And I don’t necessarily think what I saw on FB is a new sign from the Lord (in the other direction or of correction). Though he could use FB, I haven’t found that’s where he reliably speaks! The things I heard before came from time in prayer, reading the Word, listening to sermons… places that I know I was in the presence of God and hearing through ways he usually speaks to me. I need to simmer down and go back to what I was last sure he said. Maybe that’s before the thing he said last week and that’s ok. Go back to what you’re sure of… and then begin to move forward again.
You see, in my first scenario, the one where I’m just lazy and disobedient, the enemy has no need to feed my mind with crap to get me offtrack. I’m already doing that GREAT all by myself. But in the second, I really am seeking God and I want to get it right… and the enemy hates that. He’s going to reach into his bag of tricks and see what he can do, based on what he’s observed in the past that messes with my head, and do that. He’s going to make me think things that aren’t true and worry about things that aren’t real. He has a vested interest in getting me to doubt God and doubt myself… not to mention to get me to blow God’s plan for me… because what God is doing in situation #2 may be HUGE… and an absolute threat to the enemy by loosening his grip on some of the people in my life he thinks he has a good grip on.
I need to trust God’s character. He is gentle, kind, compassionate, faithful, loving, and trust worthy. If I got it wrong, he’s not going to correct me by letting me see something someone posts on FB! His ways are better than that. I need to not be so easily thrown, so quick to believe the worst.
What questions do you have for God today about God’s plans for your life? If you’re dealing with uncertainty, are you been wise and cautious… or are you just dragging your feet? How do you handle doubt? Are you trusting in God’s character or are you quick to let the enemy throw you off track?
Father God, we all have so many choices, decisions, and challenges in this world. And we want to get it right. We know your ways may not always make sense, but they are good and frankly, you know more than us, so you know better than us. Help us to understand what you’re asking, how you’re directing, and give us the courage, strength, and confidence to walk in it. AMEN.
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