Daily PresenceSample

I have spent a lot of time looking for signs, throwing out fleeces, and begging for answers on major decisions, such as jobs. Before I was married, it was definitely about who I should date. I wanted a big neon sign that lit up with the words, “you need to do this….” I was sure that if I had that sign then everything would be great. I would know where to be, what to do, or who to marry.

Read Exodus 40:36-38. There it is. God was the fire by night and the cloud by day. When the cloud lifted from the tabernacle, they would set out. If the cloud didn’t lift, they didn’t move. A sign in the sky, literally. I didn’t need neon; I needed a cloud and fire!

How much heartache could I have saved if a cloud from the LORD had dropped over any potential wrong job offerings? What if on the first date, we both had been covered in clouds? Give it 5 minutes, no lifting of the clouds, no need to figure out if I had met my spouse. Both of us head on down the road.

Israel had the LORD leading them, but when the cloud lifted and they set out, they didn’t KNOW where they were going. We know that due to the circumstances they had created, they wandered about the desert for 40 years. 40 years of signs but not necessarily the knowledge of when and where HE was leading that day. Do we really think that they didn’t have questions? “Are we supposed to go this way?” “When will we get there?” “I thought the cloud lifted; do you see the promised land yet?” And don’t forget these were the people who had crossed the Red Sea—certainly another sign.

At the end of the day, it’s not a sign that we need—it’s following the LORD who made the sign. Whether we get a sign or not, the questions and the struggles don’t end. We need to learn how to trust the LORD when there is a sign and when there isn’t. We need to change the question from “which path do I take today?” to “LORD how do I walk the path you put me on today?” No matter where it leads, no matter what I see, and no matter how long it takes to get there.