A couple weeks ago I was speaking to someone at my work. She was a Persian Christian who had received amnesty in the United States. She told me about her conversion to Christianity from Islam:
When she was 14 she felt an emptiness that would not pass. She had a wonderful family that was well off, so she did not know why. Finally she prayed to God and said "I feel so empty- give me a sign." Over the next six months Jesus appeared to her in her sleep. He told her stories from the Bible, stories she had never heard before as she had never even seen a Bible. After six months she felt lead to go downtown to a Christian church. She was handed a Bible- as she read it, she was amazed. These were the stories from her dreams. She gave her life to Christ that day.
I was amazed by her testimony- how God had so directly answered her plea when she asked for a sign. Later that day, I went to Bible study and we read out of Isaiah about King Ahaz. Two countries were swarming in on Israel. He didn’t know what to do, so he was going to essentially give up. God used Isaiah to tell him to ask for a sign. He did not and used the excuse 'I do not want to tempt the Lord.' God was angry that he did not ask for a sign. We looked at this passage in juxtaposition with one in the New Testament...when Christ's followers asked for a sign and He was angry because he had just preformed a whole bunch of miracles. This was testing God.
We concluded the difference was that it is not testing God if you ask for a sign when He has not shown you yet...as a matter of fact He encourages it. It is testing God if you keep asking for a sign when He has already shown you the direction.
So now Jer and I needed to apply this to our own lives. We prayed- God show us a sign. Should we remain where we are even though we are not 100% sure Jer will have his job back? We want to be responsible with our finance but don’t want to move too soon. You know it’s my desire to not have to move.
After two days of crying out to God for a sign, Jer got a call from his work. They said they would start work again on Jan 13th. Its a little hard for me to trust them, but it is the first time in weeks they have contacted Jer....right after we prayed. So, we will remain where we are...continuing to pray that God would direct us. We will reevaluate where we are on Jan 31st (praying that Jer does have a job then). I am a lot more at peace about it all now. Thank you Lord for teaching me this important lesson
