Text: Jonah 1:2; Mark 5:19; Isaiah 40:31

Summary: We must listen to God in prayer to know when to go, stop, or proceed with caution.

Prop: A picture of a traffic signal

Look at this picture of a traffic light. What do each of these colors on the traffic light mean when we are in a car? Red means stop. Green means go. Yellow means speed up and go really fast, right? (grin) No it means caution. Caution is a word that means slow down and clear the intersection.

Today I want to talk to you about learning how to know what God wants you to do. To find out what God wants us to do, we must spend time studying the Bible and also we must pray. When we pray we spend time listening to God speak to our heart so we know what we should do. Sometimes listening to God is like watching this traffic signal. Let’s look at some examples from the Bible.

(Read Jonah 1:2) Jonah was told Arise, go to Nineveh. He was clearly being told by God to go do something, to take action. Sometimes when we pray God will make it known to us that it is time to take action and go.

(Read Mark 5:19) The possessed man, after being healed, wanted to stay with Jesus. But Jesus told him no, to stop, that what was important was to stay home and tell his friends about Jesus. Sometimes we think we know what is right, but God stops us and tells us to do something entirely different that we never would have done on our own.

(Read Isaiah 40:31) This verse means that sometimes God wants us to slow down, take caution, and wait on Him to act first. We must yield our will to His, and patiently wait until God tells us more. This will give us time to renew our strength for what God has planned ahead. Let’s learn to listen to God when we pray so we will know what to do.

©1998 by Jim Kerlin. All rights reserved.