Have you ever had a specific bible verse, words, phrase, song lyric or even a certain set of numbers start showing up everywhere? Within my reflection discussion for Ch. 1 and 2 in All In For Him, I stated we should not ask God for signs because doing so suggests we aren’t trusting in him. I want to extend on this thought to say not asking for signs doesn’t mean God isn’t trying to speak to us.
Recently, my counselor brought up how God is very creative and will speak to us in many ways. He might use a friend’s words, a pastor’s message, a song, movie, or book, among other possibilities. Shortly after that conversation, I started hearing the song I saw God Today by George Strait on a somewhat regular basis. Hearing that song prompted me to pay more attention to the ways I was seeing God’s work in my life and also encouraged me to think of ways I can do better at showing more compassion, grace, and guidance to others.
Since I have become more observant of the ways God has recently made an impact in my life and in the lives of those around me, I have been in awe of what I’ve seen. Sometimes we get so fixated on the exact way and exact timeline in which we want God to answer our prayers that we miss his voice because it came in a form that was different than what we expected. Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (Romans 10:17 NIV). When we don’t take time to listen to God, or fail to notice his prescence, we tend to miss his role in our circumstances (and that is the one that matters most).
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12 NIV). I encourage you to reflect on your day. What is one way you believe God was trying to speak to you? Take a moment to reflect and write out your thoughts. Then, think back to this past week, or month, and jot down more ways God has been speaking to you.
If we spend time reflecting on God’s prescence in our lives, perhaps we will become more grateful for the many blessings, big and small, that happen each day. At the end of each day, my kids share three things they are grateful for, two things that made them happy (or that they enjoyed about their day), and one way they were like Jesus to someone else. Maybe you can do a similar exercise (and if you write them down, it might be fun to look back on one day).
I’ll share a few examples of ways I have seen God’s prescence in my life lately:
- Every morning I spend time praying that God guides me to know how I can be more like Jesus to others. God’s guidance comes in different forms – sometimes when reading a bible verse or devotional message, God will put someone on my heart to send it to. Sometimes, it’s a person, or group of people that come to mind, so I pray for them (and it’s not always someone I know personally or someone in my inner circle. It has even been people I haven’t spoken to in years that come to mind). Other times, God’s guidance comes during a conversation with someone and I feel empowered to share what comes to mind. I am amazed when someone responds with “I needed that”. God wants us to be a light to others.
- I had a health concern a few months ago and the outcome was likely one of two possibilities – one was good, the other not as much. While I trusted God, I spent one day going down the rabbit hole of research and convincing myself it was the worse outcome of the two. My appointment was still three weeks out, but that night I remembered the saying “Don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is”. So I prayed and gave it to God. The next morning, I had a phone call from the doctor’s office saying they had a cancellation and could get me in right away. As the doctor shared the diagnosis, and it was the good outcome, he said he could see it in my eyes that I understood what he was talking about. God wants us to place our full trust in him.
- *I pray regularly for those who do not recieve good news from their health concerns
- In a conversation, I used sarcasm to compare a current situation to a part of Moses’s story – a few days later as someone was praying over me, she compared the situation to Moses (I had not told her about my comment). God wants us to remember he has a sense of humor and he hear us.
- A friend was telling me about a devotional she was reading and a bible verse that stood out from the reading: Remember Lot’s Wife (Luke 17:32 NIV) – the message behind this verse is “don’t look back”. God used my friend to tell me what I needed to hear and that bible verse has become a catch phrase to me. God speaks to us through the words of others.
I encourage you to open your eyes and ears to the ways God is speaking to you. I am a believer that coincidences don’t just happen by chance. To close in prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father,
I pray for the person reading this. I pray they are observant of the ways you are working in their life. I pray they hear you when you speak, regardless of the way you are choosing to reach them. We are blessed with a consistent God, one who will not give up on us if we miss your message the first time around. I pray this message was just what the person reading this needed to hear today. In Jesus name, Amen.
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