Walking from the parking garage to the entrance of the hospital, I felt reasonably sure I could navigate my way to the surgery waiting area. I had been there a few years back during both my daughter and my husband’s almost back-to-back surgeries. But making my way through the winding corridors I became confused and soon realized I needed to ask for directions.
It was so simple. I just stopped at the first desk I saw and asked a hospital employee how to get to the place I needed to be.
And she told me exactly where to go.
She gestured with her hands, spoke calmly and gave me easy-to-follow directions, all the while looking either at me or in the direction I’d need to go. I told her thank you and walked in the designated direction. Without incident, I made it to my destination. Easy-peasy.
Need directions for life situations?
Just a few days later I sat with my daughter as she brainstormed aloud about her future. She, too, needed direction. But she didn’t want to know how to navigate a few hallways. She wanted to set out in a new direction, venture onto unexplored paths and even become something new. Most importantly, she wanted to follow the Lord’s will for her life.
She was stuck at a crossroads and desperately in need of a little assistance. And, like me when I became disoriented at the hospital, Abby was asking for help.
Unlike the friendly nurse at the hospital, I couldn’t offer my daughter the clear cut directions she desired. I could only listen, offer to pray and assure her that God would indeed make a way.
I knew my daughter had already been asking God to light her path, to point the way, to either give her new passions or reignite the old, to open doors and to speak. She had been asking. But she still felt in the dark.
That got me to thinking about times when I’ve sought direction from the Lord. I’ve often become frustrated with His silence and confused by my inability to hear His voice.
God doesn’t speak aloud to me. He doesn’t motion with holy hands or point the way with a beam of light or even nod toward the right door. More often than not, when I get up from my knees I’m still clueless about which direction to point my feet.
You, too?
Why does God make it so difficult to get direction?
In Isaiah 30:19-21, the prophet assured God’s people that if they would seek assistance from Him rather than from another source, God would indeed direct their paths.
O people in Zion, inhabitants in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He {God} will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. And your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” (Isaiah 30:19-21, NASB)
If you’ve been desperately seeking direction from the Lord and the silence has been deafening, this scripture may seem like an empty promise. But I assure you, this specific word to the inhabitants of Jerusalem was characteristic of God’s heart and intentions toward you and me today. God desires to answer your pleas for help.
But this passage in Isaiah teaches us several things about God and the way He supplies direction.
Seeking directions? Seek Him.
First, we must keep in mind that God’s greatest desire is for you and me to draw close to Him, to develop intimate and satisfying relationships with Him. The nurse who helped me find my way at the hospital didn’t care to get to know me. And I don’t even remember what she looked like. But God doesn’t want us to see Him as the guy behind the “Help” desk. More than He wants us to know the way, He wants us to know Him.
Isaiah 30:20 says that when God begins to point the way it will be because “your eyes will behold your Teacher.” The more we behold God — not just glance at Him or call out His name, but really hold Him in our gaze — the more clearly we will begin to see our circumstances. Psalm 73:16-17 echoes this principle:
When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.”
What do you find in the “sanctuary of God?” God Himself. His presence. So the psalmist in Psalm 73 is saying that when he had an intimate encounter with God that eclipsed all others, his perception cleared and what once troubled him now seemed crystal clear.
The more intimately we experience and know God, the clearer life’s dilemmas will become.
When I seek directions I often become more confused, but when I seek God He eventually makes things clear. Click To TweetHow will that happen? Hmm, I have some thoughts but no definitive answers. Maybe in the light of His glory the questions fade in importance. Perhaps the decision goes away because the desire has dissolved as our intimacy with God has increased. Or maybe something that was hindering us from seeing things as they really are disappears as glimpses of God’s character clears our vision. Maybe the more we grow in love for Him the more we also grow in love for the things He loves…and that love sets us on the right path. Or maybe the more we spend time in honest and true communion with Him the more He makes all things new in us…and we begin to see things through new eyes.
This I do know. Seeking directions from God is not usually a matter of simply asking and receiving. It’s more a matter of seeking Him.
Directions as we go.
But I also learn from the passage in Isaiah 30 that God asks us to trust Him as we go. Remember, He doesn’t just want to tell us how to get there; He wants to go with us. (Joshua 1:9) As we go forward He will direct our paths. We just have to remain constantly aware of His presence and dependent upon Him for navigation, resisting the temptation to dart ahead or venture off on our own.
Finally, I learn from Isaiah 30 that indeed we do sometimes experience times of silence from God. The people of Jerusalem had experienced a time of leanness, a time of desperation for instruction and assistance. But Isaiah says that time of privation served a purpose: it drew the people to God and highlighted His love and faithfulness in contrast with the fickle nature of others they had run to for assistance.
Friend, if you are stuck in a season of seeming silence, do not fear. Do not believe the lies of the enemy that tell you God has forgotten or abandoned you. Instead, press in closer to your covenant-keeping God. Trust that He will eventually speak. And when He does you will have your ears focused solely on Him so that you can hear Him well. He loves you so.
If you need help learning to hear the voice of God, you might enjoy going through my 31-day devotional guide, A Taste of Satisfaction. This simple devotional guide helps you hear God speak through His Word and teaches you how to build a soul-satisfying menu of scriptures for meditation and memorization. You can find out more here. You can order the book from my website or from Amazon.
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