Signs

This is not a post about a Mel Gibson movie
or about a great game to play in small groups
or about things that direct the flow of traffic

This post is about signs from God.

I think that just about everyone at some point in their life has asked for a sign that what they're doing is right or a sign that points us in a direction to choose one thing over another.

Whether they're asking for a sign from God, or from something else, it seems like most of us want affirmation from something or someone else that what we're doing is right.

We want this sign to reassure our own insecurities and doubts.

Sometimes I want a sign that God is real, that I'm not imagining this whole thing and that what i've experienced is a genuine experience and not something contrived.

Sometimes I try to trick God into letting me have what I want. "If i'm not supposed to date this person, give me a sign not to." (I think I used this a lot when I was younger)

But are signs really going to be the thing that sways us towards God? The Bible doesn't really have a good track record of them working out. How many times did God perform miracles and wonders for the Israelis coming out of Egypt? And still they turned away from Him almost as soon as the wonders were over. How many times did Jesus perform miracles for the disciples and yet Thomas still didn't believe until he touched and saw the resurrected Christ.

Jesus even says "Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe." Which says to me that we shouldn't need or rely on signs.

Because faith is precisely that, not seeing and yet still believing.

So then what good are signs at all? Should we want to see signs from God?

Psalm 86 says

Give me a sign of your goodness,
that my enemies may see it and be put to shame,
for you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me (v17)

The psalmist isn't asking for a sign for his sake, for his reassurance, but for others, that his enemies might see the error of their ways and come to know the true God. Is that why Jesus did signs and wonders? So that those who did not know him would understand that he had power and authority from God?

I don't know, maybe that's all signs were supposed to be, just letting outsiders know that this person has authority and you should pay attention to what he says. What do you think?