Show me your sign!

 “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”  Jeremiah 29:13 

Have you ever prayed for God to “give you a sign to let you know that he is there”?  Have you thought how much easier it would be to believe in a God that was manifest in the flesh that you could see and touch today?  (as if our faith is supposed to be easy!)

I have to be completely honest – I have had these thoughts.  I have often selfishly prayed for God to just “give me a sign” that he’s working in my life.  I always expect to see some grand gesture or a booming voice to grab my attention.  I think to myself, if only I could have some sort of physical sign then it would make believing so much EASIER.  It could make my faith so much STRONGER than it is, and I could live every day of my life much bolder!

But then I think of the ancient Israelites who were able to learn from Prophets who directly communicated with God.  God led them with a cloud of smoke and fire.  And let’s not forget God’s most amazing interaction with human kind, sending Jesus, his Son to minister to us.  And yet, even with these very “physical” instances, there was still unbelief!  

The more I prayed for my desire to feel God and to know he was with me the more I started noticing little things.  I would get a devotional in my email with an exact bible verse that I had read that morning.  I would go to Sunday church and hear a sermon with a theme or a reading of a specific verse or character that I had just been reading or speaking about.  I have had a few of these examples happen over the past couple weeks, and I’d like to share them with you:

My husband decided that he wanted to start reading the book of Daniel.  So on a Friday night he got out his bible and his Matthew Henry commentary and started plugging through Daniel.  On Saturday the next day he got an email from one of his favorite podcasts on a new series that was starting on Monday about, yep you guessed it, Daniel.  When we went to church that Sunday the sermon was about .. dum dum dum .. Daniel!

I had a discussion with my son about the story of Jonah, and we were discussing how he was supposed to go to Ninevah but didn’t want to, and ended up in the belly of the whale.  I had also noticed while reading, that at the end of the book Jonah was not happy about the Ninevites being saved.  The following night at our church bible study, the Pastor mentioned Jonah and how he felt about the Ninevites.  The next day on my sermon series that I listen to there was a sermon about Jonah.

Yesterday I opened my bible to start reading Matthew 16 (I don’t know why, it’s just where I opened up to) and read the passage where Jesus tells Peter that he is the rock that He will build his church upon.  On my way into work I was listening to a podcast by RC Sproul where he is talking about this exact passage and the confession of Peter in this section where he declares that Jesus is the Son of the living God.

This morning I was thinking to myself how I wanted to do a blog about Mary and Martha and how I related to Martha and wanted to be more of a Mary.  After I dropped off the kids I turned on the radio to a public radio station that does sermons in the morning and, low and behold, a sermon about Martha and Mary!

Now I know too many people they will just chalk it up to coincidence.  But let’s move past that because I don’t believe that there are just coincidences.  I believe in a sovereign God who’s hand controls everything in the universe.  

So what is God trying to tell me?  Why do I hear songs on the radio specifically relating to something that I am going through at that exact moment?  Is He trying to tell me something deep within the lines of Daniel, Jonah or Mary and Martha?  Am I supposed to study and ponder and fast until I know what God wants me to do for him?

Maybe ….   Or maybe God is just answering my prayers.  Maybe this is God’s way of simply letting me know that he is here, he’s with me, he’s watching over me, and he has a hand on my life.  It’s like He’s giving me a little grin and a wink and showing me that he is hearing me, and while I don’t get to see him in person, I can know he’s here.  

“BE STILL and know that I am God”  Psalm 46:10