When you need to make a decision and ask for God’s leading, how do you know what His answer is?
Two situations recently taught me something about discerning God’s leading.
A friend had to make a decision – yes or no in accepting a position.
Me: “Why don’t you ask God to give you a sign?”
Friend: “I did. And I didn’t get that sign.”
The deadline to give his answer was up, so he gave No as his answer.
A day later, he changed his mind. God gave him the sign he was asking for that next day. So he accepted the position.
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Recently I was asked to speak to a group of girls. I had some hesitations as to whether or not I’d be good for this group; I wanted to say No.
But I decided to ask God for a sign. I prayed and prayed, but He didn’t give me the sign I was asking for. The deadline to give the answer was coming up tomorrow, and I want to say No.
Then today, God showed me the sign I was asking for. So now I will have to say Yes.
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Don’t get me wrong, I don’t usually ask God for a sign. You can’t live life asking God for signs all the time. That’s not the Christian life. The Christian life is not like astrology looking for signs in the stars, or living superstitiously.
But I believe that once in a while, you need a definitive answer. And you are honestly confused. You want to do what God wants you to do, and you just can’t decide. Your relationship with God is good, you’re in the Word, and you’ve been praying, but you can’t seem to decide.
I believe that God wants us to know his will. He is not purposely hiding it from us.
There are times when it is appropriate to ask God for a sign.
The lesson I learned from the above situations is that the sign may not be given right away. We have to ask, seek and knock. Asking for a sign is not an easy way out to know God’s will. It actually requires us to look to God more, and wait on Him to answer in His time.
Well, I know there are a lot of opinions about asking God for signs. What about Gideon? What about Ahaz? What about Moses? They all had varying experiences of asking for signs from God.
All I know is, God is never far from us. If we really desire to know Him, He avails himself to us, lowers Himself to speak in a way that we can hear Him.