Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Doubts”
Our Bible verse for today: “Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.” Judges 6:17 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “You may doubt yourself but don’t doubt God.”
One of the greatest and most perplexing doubts that Christians wrestle with is whether or not God is really speaking to them about an issue and if He is, what exactly is He saying?
That was the case with young Gideon. At that time the entire nation of Israel was living in great sin, worshiping other Gods. In punishment God was allowing them to suffer at the hands of the cruel Midianites. It was an awful time in the history of the nation. Everyone was suffering.
When it was time for the punishment to end and for deliverance to come, God called Gideon to lead the people in a revolt against the army of Midian and to thereby bring His people relief from their oppressors. But Gideon couldn’t believe it. He was young and untrained and weak. Therefore he doubted if God was really telling him to do this thing. So Gideon essentially tested his call. He asked God to confirm it for him and to remove his doubts. And God did.
Please note that Gideon didn’t doubt God, he doubted himself. Gideon wasn’t testing God, he was testing the accuracy of what he believed he might be hearing. There’s a big difference there.
If God has already made his will clear to you, and you continue to ask for more clarity and confirmation anyway, you are simply being disobedient. Many people use the desire for “more clarity” as an excuse to avoid doing something they don’t want to do. But when your genuine desire is just to make sure you understand Him correctly so that you can obey Him, then you can and should ask Him for clarity and confirmation.
In such cases you can trust God to make Himself clear to you. But be sure your heart is right. Make sure that the only thing holding you back from taking action is a genuine desire to be sure you do understand Him correctly, and that you really do intend to obey Him once you have clarity and confirmation.
If you read the story of Gideon in Judges Chapters six through eight, you can see the method he used to gain the clarity and confirmation he needed. It involved putting out a fleece – but that was unique to his situation. It’s not a method I recommend for you to try. And if you were to use it, I doubt you would get the results that Gideon got. Instead, there are other ways God has given us to gain the understanding we need and to remove the doubts.
One way of hearing from God involves just placing yourself in a position before Him whereby He has your undivided attention and He can speak to you. Often that will happen in church. So how about if you go to church this Sunday, pay attention to what God might want to say to you, and then on Monday we’ll talk about another method you can use to help gain clarity and understanding that will help to alleviate your doubts.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 