God's Guidance 1 - Writing Letters
God will give us direction in our lives if we ask him and trust him. Here’s a personal example of how clearly God can guide…
One of my greatest joys in life is to act on something that I know was God’s idea.
I love watching God initiate. Here’s kind of the pattern I’ve seen:
1. He brings to our attention a need or an opportunity.
2. Then we ask him how to solve it. We wait for God to lead.
3. Then we simply follow. Sometimes we begin following without having the whole plan known, but that’s ok. We follow in whatever steps he’s given us.
There is a lot of Scripture that teaches us to do this. Here’s one:
“Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” Ps 33:20-22
“On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of soul.” Ps 138:3
God’s leading, God’s faithfulness when we call to him, is a huge part of my life. He’s been so clear. So obvious in his leading.
Occasionally I’m going to share examples with you, in hopes of building your faith, your vision, for waiting on the Lord and seeing God lead you.
Here’s just one example of where God initiated.
At various times, God put it on my heart to write letters to individual friends or relatives who did not know Jesus, and share the gospel with them. I was faithful to do that. Their response was not my concern.
I just knew God wanted me to write them. Opportunities would just come up. For example, a difficult situation happened to me, and a relative commented about my “great faith.”
A few days later, I wrote her explaining that my faith is not the issue. We can trust God because he’s trustworthy.
I told her, “If I asked you to be my house decorator–it wouldn’t be because of my great faith. It would be because you’re a great decorator!” And then I went on to explain why God can be trusted.
Well, I was faithful to write these letters to individual people, as God seemed to bring the person to my mind. I’d ask him, “What should I say to this person?”
When God provided a message that seemed right, I wrote them. This seemed to happen pretty regularly for years.
Then one year I had a desire to write an article that I could print and hand out to my neighbors or clerks in stores, during the Christmas season. I knew everyone was busy that time of year. Yet, I also knew many did not know the truth about Christmas and what Jesus is offering them. So handing a person an article seemed like an easy way.
It was a little scary writing something “for the public.” I felt exposed. I wondered if I was a good enough writer to do something like that. In my timidness, I spent one full year writing that one article!
I’d polish a paragraph, then throw it out. It was my testing ground. My lab. A full year on one article! Crazy, I know.
During this time, I was asked to attend a conference with the Christian organization I’m a part of. As it turned out, my 4-yr-old daughter wasn’t feeling well and I missed 95% of the conference.
All except for this one significant hour when my daughter was well enough to attend…
We climbed into the lower bleachers, in the very back of this enormous auditorium, coloring books and crayons in hand.
As I looked over the expansive crowd of 5,000 people, I said to God, “I wonder what it would take to find Linda in this crowd?” Linda was an excellent evangelistic writer, and I wanted to ask her some questions about writing.
Less than two minutes later, Linda walked in the back door of the auditorium, at the floor level, and stood immediately below my feet. I simply leaned over and tapped her on the shoulder. We met for lunch that day…the last day of the conference.
Again, God providing.
When both my children were old enough to enter grade school, I said to God, “I think you want me to do more evangelistic writing. But we’re going to have to find a way to be more productive than one article a year.”
Within a couple of months, someone invited me to be a writer for an evangelistic outreach series they wanted to do on all the university campuses in the U.S. It consisted of printed articles, posters, campus newspaper ads.
It eventually led to EveryStudent.com, in 45 languages, reaching more than 150 million people to date. But that’s another story.
What I want you to catch is to follow God however he leads. It started with writing a letter to friends and relatives. “He who is faithful in little, will be faithful in much.” Luke 16:10
Ask God to lead you. Listen to what he puts on your heart. Ask him to provide what’s needed. Then follow. It’s okay to be scared. Look to him.