We all experience signals from God every single day. He has no problems sending signals to help guide us. Our challenge is to prepare ourselves and be alert to recognize, receive, and respond to God’s signals appropriately.
“The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked”—Psalm 11:5 (NASB)
Many of God’s signals come to us disguised as irritations; interruptions; as difficult situations; or as unreasonable people.
After God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, He promised them a wonderful destiny in a land “flowing with milk and honey.” But when they sent spies to scout out the land, most of the spies came back with a bad report, saying that there were giants in the land that would surely destroy them all. The people responded to this problem with cursing, complaining, and regret for even being delivered from slavery!
At the same time, Joshua and Caleb did their best to encourage the people to believe God and continue the journey to the wonderful destiny that God had promised them.
Joshua and Caleb, because of their positive responses to God’s signals, went on to enjoy all that God had promised them in the “land of milk and honey.”
All of those Israelites who did not respond appropriately to God’s signals experienced destructive consequences in their lives. They never experienced the “abundant lives” that God had intended for them to enjoy.
In many little ways every day, we face the same choices. God’s signals are actually invitations to a better quality of life. If we respond appropriately, we can enjoy the better quality of life that God intended for us—the “abundant life” that Jesus came to give us. But if we reject God’s signals, and do not respond appropriately, we bring destructive consequences on ourselves and our families.
It is vitally important that we learn to recognize and respond appropriately to God’s signals in life. But God is merciful and patient. If we do not respond appropriately to His initial signals, He also uses the negative consequences that we experience as signals that correction is needed in certain areas of our lives. If we *still *do not respond, the negative consequences will become more severe and more intense in order to prompt us to finally respond and make the necessary corrections.
“Some of the redeemed had been sitting in darkness and deep gloom; they were prisoners suffering in chains because they had disobeyed God’s instructions and rejected the Most High’s plans.”—Psalm 107:10-11 (CEB)
Problems in our lives are signals from God. These signals can come in any area of our lives. Problems sometimes affect our relationships with family members, friends, and others. Health problems are also signals from God. Problems on the job, and problems with our finances or possessions are all signals from God.
Problems are often designed by God to be catalysts to cause us to turn to Him and to seek His solutions for our problems. In the process of our search, we will discover that Jesus truly is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life!” as He told us in John 14:6.
Until we realize that the problems in our lives are signals sent to us from a loving God who is always working in our best interests, we will curse and complain about our problems like someone who is walking in darkness and does not understand what he is constantly tripping over.
“They don’t know; they don’t understand; they wander around in the dark.”—Psalm 82:5 (CEB)
“But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness, and they do not know what they are stumbling over.”—Proverbs 4:19 (ISV)