How often do you question God’s word?

For me it seems like it happens almost daily.

I am not proud of that; it just proves how dumb I really am. I mean who am I, this young guy to question the being that created the heavens and the earth, the one who created everything in love, the one who created me?

You might be asking where this is coming from.

Well, today we are going to talk about chapter 13 in Judges. While we can read this chapter many different ways and pull many different meanings out of it. This morning God led me to actually listening to him and trusting what he tells me.

Let’s start with Verse 8: Then Manoah prayed to the Lord : Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.

I re-read this verse several times. And what God showed me was that when she prayed, it wasn’t for the angel to come back so her husband would believe what she was saying.

NO

It was so they could learn HOW to raise the child for God’s purpose.

All too often we forget that everything we do is for God. Or at least it should be.

I think back to when we gave our business, Eclipse DOT, to God. We had had the business name for 2 years and were working on all the backend stuff.  Like a website, what we would do (products), people we would talk to (potential customers), how much we should charge, the list goes on and on.

Then one day Jenna (my brilliant and beautiful wife) said Hey why don’t we pray together right now about the business and just see where God guides our hearts.

Being the great husband I am, I listened, and we prayed right there while driving down the road between Wisconsin and Indiana.

She started, God, you are amazing, we are blessed beyond what we ever could have imagined.  We have great friends, wonderful family, and amazing adventures. Thank you for letting us experience your world and all the beauty of it. God we are lost though. We know that you called us to start our business, but we seem to be able to make any headway. We are here to LISTEN to you.

As soon as we finished praying, the answer hit us like a freight train. GIVE IT TO ME.

So, we did. We gave it to God.

This takes us to verse 12 in chapter 13, ‘So Manoah asked him, when your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?

Notice Manoah’s words.

WHEN!

He doesn’t say, if, or maybe, or possibly. He says WHEN your words are fulfilled.

There is no doubt in his mind that they will conceive a baby. He KNOWS that it is going to happen.

We have to TRUST that God has it all under control and that he knows what he is doing.  He has a plan for us, just like he did with Sampson’s parents.

The last part of chapter 13 that I have to talk about is faith.

When we skip to verse 22 Manoah says, we are doomed to die.

He allowed his fear to overrule his faith. Satin thrives on fear and hopes that we allow it to take control of our lives.

We wait to have kids because we are scared that we won’t be able to support them. We wait to start a business or nonprofit because we are scared of failing. We wait to get married because we are scared that this is not the right person. We don’t change jobs because we are scared that the next one might be worse than where we are right now.

You get the point. As humans we allow fear to drive.

And that is why we all need a good wife in our lives to help us TRUST GOD. Just as Manoah’s did. 

She told him, if the Lord had intended to kill us, why didn’t he do it already? He would not have accepted burnt offerings or come back to tell how to raise his child.

Just like Jenna did for me. She guided us to pray and then stood strong when we gave it all to God.

Today we have a few little exercises that we want you to join in with us on.

1. Take a second to evaluate where you are not trusting God fully. It could be work, finances, relationships, children, grandchildren, anything.
2. Write those down. Somehow when we write things down on paper it makes them real
3. Now, Pray for God’s guidance on how he WANTS you to solve these issues.
4. Here is the hard one, LISTEN. Listen to what God tells you.  It might be through an email, phone call, commercial, social media post, YouTube video, conversation with a friend. The key is that you have to HEAR what he was to say.
5. This one is even harder than the last one, Take ACTION. We don’t only need to listen to God, we need to do what he says. If he says stop drinking alcohol, then STOP. If he says, ask her to marry you get down on one knee and do it. If he says give your business to me, then, by all means, do it. Step down as owner and give it to God!

I know that there are some people right now who are saying, this is amazing, but I CAN’T hear God. How do I listen to him?

You can start by praying for God to open your eyes and ears to hear him. Then you need to pay close attention to how he is speaking to you, I promise that he is.  We just have to figure out how to understand what he’s saying.