Q4. Our Light or His?

[Pastor Ralph]

Q4. (Isaiah 50:10-11) How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can’t see where you’re going? Have you ever experienced fear in this situation? How do you continue? What is the danger of creating your own “light” to substitute for the invisible God? 

[Gerbrand van Schalkwyk]

 How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can't see where you're going?

Prayer, Bible study, Seeking His will always, faith and prayer.

Since you cant see where you are going, you don't have much choice but to trust in God. Know that He knows best and hand your situation in His Hand and follow with obedience. - it is often much more difficult to stay true to the faith when things are going easy - that is when you start relying on yourself.

Have you ever experienced fear in this situation?

Yes

How do you continue?

Faith. Having an eternal vision, knowing that this too shall pass, not focussing on the now but on God.

What is the danger of creating your own "light" to substitute for the invisible God?

PRoBLEMS!!!. I did it a few years ago. Never knew things can go so wrong so fast - horrible experience

[IvoryEagle]

How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can't see where you're going? Let him who walks in the dark,

who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God." (50:10)

 

 

 

Have you ever experienced fear in this situation? MORE LIKE UNCERTAINTY.

 

 

How do you continue?  TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL OF MY HEART, LEAN NOT ON MY OWN UNDERSTANDING, ACKNOWLEDGE HIM IN ALL MY WAYS, AND HE WILL DIRECT MY PATH Prov.3:5-6

 

 

What is the danger of creating your own "light" to substitute for the invisible God?  But now, all you who light fires

and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze.

This is what you shall receive from my hand:  You will lie down in torment." (50:11)

 

 

[angelbaby]

Q4. (Isaiah 50:10-11) How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can't see where you're going?

   We must walk by Faith and not by sight.....You can never see the lords mysterious ways ...he springs surprises which are far beyond our expectations and what we can ever dream of. Just Trust in the Lord with all your heart He is a friend so true , No matter what your troubles are, Jesus will see you through. 

Have you ever experienced fear in this situation?

Yes. Doubts creep in , the devil finds a foothold .

 How do you continue?

.you have to develop the strength by reading the Word of God and Prayer to resisit doubt and have Faith

What is the danger of creating your own "light" to substitute for the invisible God? 

God is an a;; powerful God; Nothing is too difficult for Him. so whatever your need He will provide it JUST PRAY UNCEASINGLY.

OUR  own decisions and solutions may appear more lucrative and rewarding but Trust me without God you can do nothing. 

[charisbarak]

By much prayer, Bible study, spending time with believers. Having faith & really believing He will lead and that He wants the best for us.

Yes, I have. But I had to get back to completely praising Him, knowing He was in control. Requesting prayer from my brothers & sisters in the Lord helps much!

Whenever you choose to walk by your own light is like the blind leading the blind. It is really foolish. Besides, you compound the problem & it falls in on you.

[RD35]

When the going gets dark I have to trust in the promises which God has made to me and build my hope on these promises.

 

Yes I have experienced fear when such situations have come, I have continued with faith, prayer reading and confessing the Word of God and fellowshipping with God’s people.

 

Those that make the world their comfort, and their own righteousness their confidence, will certainly meet with bitterness in the end.

[hanks]

Q4. (Isaiah 50:10-11)

How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can't see where you're going?

Have you ever experienced fear in this situation?

How do you continue?

What is the danger of creating your own "light" to substitute for the invisible God? 

It is exactly when we walk in the dark and cannot see where we are going that we must put our trust in Him and it is when our faith needs to be at its strongest.

We must walk in the light of our Lord Jesus who is the Light of the World. If we reject Him and use our own little torches we will be eternally lost. 

 

 

[JanMary]

On 8/1/2013 at 10:22 PM, Pastor Ralph said:

 

 

Q4. (Isaiah 50:10-11) How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can’t see where you’re going?

This verse tells us to lean upon our God, and to rely on, trust in and be confident in His Name, to be supported by our God! If we've been walking with Him for awhile, we will have experienced that He is trustworthy and will bring us "through" to His destination. 

Have you ever experienced fear in this situation?

Yes, I have, many times, and I'm reliving the same feelings as I watch our son who has lost his job face homelessness, as we once did, and we have no resources to help him. I call this fear "gut sickness" because it's so painful and debilitating to watch someone we love suffer. 

How do you continue?

By praying continually for strength, wisdom, peace and rest. By surrendering...by remembering that deliverance is His promise and that when I've done all, TO STAND on what I know and allow Him to support me "on every leaning side" (as an old saint once said). I cry and cry to the Lord...tears somehow release the fear. I ask others to pray. I listen for His voice. I read His Word with listening ears to hear any guidance or comfort.....and I don't beat myself up for being afraid...I lived in terror my whole childhood, so I'm gentle with myself, as I know My Father does not condemn me.

What is the danger of creating your own “light” to substitute for the invisible God?

I would get lost! I have no "light" of my own....I'm just a mirror to reflect His light. I've learned that His light usually only comes to illumine the next step....not the whole path. (I experienced this life lesson one dark night at a retreat on an unfamiliar unlit trail as several of us with one tiny flashlight tried to find our way back to our cabins. When the lady holding the flashlight shined it up ahead, we stumbled over the steps just in front of our feet, but when she focused the tiny circle of light just in front of our next step we made progress.  It was scary because in the dark nothing looked familiar or safe, the path was rough and uneven. We wanted to see what was ahead in the distance, but we got safely to our destination when we took one step at a time in the small amount of light we were given.

[Guitar Jim]

Q4. (Isaiah 50:10-11) How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can’t see where you’re going?

 

Believe me, it's not easy. We're sometimes faced with a fork in the road and don't know which way to go. Do we accept that job offer, or stay where we are? Do we trade that old car in on a newer one, or spend the money fixing the one we have? Do we take on a ministry role we're not sure we're being led to take for fear of others thinking we're backsliding, or do we politely decline? There are so many things for which we need the Lord's guidance. And yet we pray and nothing in the way of a definite answer comes. So do we feel around like a blind person or do we just go ahead and do what we think is best? That's the was most Christians, and definitely I, go through life.

 

When faced with a decision that needs to be made as to what we're thinking of doing, in the absence of a definitive word from God, which most folks never ever get, here are four steps to take:

 

1. Is it Biblically sound? Does the Bible teach against something we're considering? If so then go no further.

 

2. Seek the advice of mature Christian friends. Sometimes God won't give us an answer himself but will speak through wise believers.

 

3. Look for doors opening and closing. Even if a door appears to be closing, a gentle push may open it again. But we shouldn't have to put our shoulder to it or have to kick it down to get it open. If that's the case, accept that you shouldn't do what you're planning and move on. God will sometimes close doors because He wants us to do something else. Remember Paul was prevented by the "Spirit of Jesus" from going to a certain area to preach. On the surface it would seem he should go but God said no and closed the door . . .and Paul was smart enough to realize that. One missionary couple I knew took over ten years to get funding to go to the mission field. Maybe they shouldn't have gone? Maybe those ten years could have been used more productively for God doing something else?

 

4. Gut feeling. When all the other critereia have been met, there could then be a gnawing feeling that maybe we shouldn't do whatever it is we're considering. I'm not talking about buyer's remorse or seller's remorse, but a nagging feeling that we're not heading in the right direction. If that feeling persists, it could be the Holy Spirit giving us an impression in our spirit. Trust that.

The problem most Christians have is that they follow those four steps in the reverse order.

 

 

 

Have you ever experienced fear in this situation? How do you continue?

 

Fear? Maybe not actual fear as such, but when I felt I should become a professional musician when work injuries ended my truck driving career I earnestly sought the Lord's guidance. This was a complete change of direction for my life. Most Christian people i knew told me to go for it and my best friend, a mature Christian actually suggested it. My senior pastor didn't. But then he'd been a Reverend and a pastor since age 23 and had been insulated from real world concerns for the past 20 years. Our associate Pastor came to the ministry at age 39, and had worked in the workforce until then, so I went to him for advice.

I followed the four steps I outlined above, in the right order too I must add, and in the end it was my gut that had to make the final decision. I went for it. A few months into getting myself ready to gig, I began to have doubts. Then, at the point where I was really worried that I'd made the wrong career move and was even considering trying to get a day job driving cabs, a guitar that I'd ordered back in February when I was still driving trucks and hadn't yet suffered the injury that sidelined me, arrived at the shop and they rang me. I went in to pick it up and pay for it and one look at it was all I needed to know that right there was my "tool of the trade" that was going to serve me well in entering the music industry as a professional guitarist. From that moment on, I've known I'm doing what I should be doing.

There have been massive hurdles along the way and I've been demonized by the people who control the industry to the point of being put completely out of business four times and almost out of business a couple more times but I haven't wavered. I'm only playing bars and clubs, performing to folks while they eat and drink. I don't know if I'll always be doing exactly what I'm doing now but if and when God wants me to use my talent in another way, I'm sure He'll let me know in no uncertain terms.

 

 

 

What is the danger of creating your own “light” to substitute for the invisible God?

 

We could go so far in the wrong direction that God will indeed cause us to lie down in torment. I've recently come out of a relationship with a thoroughly evil woman. She had been a professing Christian before I met her and still reminisced about those days when we talked. She still considered herself a strong Christian even though she was an alcoholic, a drug user, and a heavy smoker who had mutliple sexual partners and considered nothing too perverted for her carnal appetites. She even suggested we live together and go to church but I knew that'd never be. I wouldn't be in any of the perveted stuff she wanted me to try and that contributed to our breakup. I grossly over-estimated my positive influence in her life because she was way too far gone for someone of my limited faith to influence. She tried to become a better person but the call of the wild, so to speak, was too strong and she wound up in a worse state than when I first met her. I kept going back to her a few times when we'd break up over her crazy behavior because she'd promise to be better and to mend her ways but the whole time I was in that relationship I went to bed every night with a knot in my guts.

After two months apart and of not contacting her at all I tried to go back again and that's when the torment really started. God worked a number on me to indeed cause me to "lie down in torment". I'm talking extreme bi-polar symptoms and even an anxiety/panic attack that mimiced the symptoms of an actual heart attack!

It took that extreme measure on God's part to break her infulence over me. I have cut the soul tie that our union created and only now, a month after the torment began, can I sleep at night. I'd tried to "create" a light to walk by but it turned to ashes. Thank God, that He brought me to my senses. I write all this because maybe my example may be a warning to someone else thinking of going down a slippery slope.

[Lion of Grace]

I can trust the Lord to guide me when I can't see where I'm going first by trusting in Him and His promises to me. I can renew my mind by reading my Bible and remembering and relying on His truths to see me through. I can pray for strength and remain in close communion with Him. I often see Him as my Shepherd and I, his lamb, walking very closely by His side in these times. I know He knows the way and I just have to stay very close to Him to get to where He is leading. Walking by faith means knowing God has your way planned and though you can't see it, you know He is in absolute command of where you are being led.

 

Yes, I've experienced fear in these situations, but when I do, I usually find I've taken my eyes off of Jesus and have them more on my circumstances than my trust in Him. I start to feel anxious and worn but when I return to Him and His truths, then I receive peace and patience in my circumstances. I renew my trust in Him and can quietly wait knowing He has not forgotten me and He loves me. I continue this way with confidence in Him.

 

Creating my own light is useless. My light is dim and my understanding small. If I trust in my own understanding or my skewed perspectives, I can get off course pretty quickly. If I put my trust in myself or anyone else it's a sure bet I'm going off course. 

[royk]

(Isaiah 50:10-11) How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can't see where you're going? Have you ever experienced fear in this situation? How do you continue? What is the danger of creating your own "light" to substitute for the invisible God? 

 

I'm able to see recently that it has been my light and not his for many things. Now I have to live with it, and accept the cards God puts in my hands, I hope and pray to His Glory. Lots of prayer and meditaiton to try to hear Him better each day

[Jen]

Q4. (Isaiah 50:10-11) How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can't see where you're going? Have you ever experienced fear in this situation? How do you continue? What is the danger of creating your own "light" to substitute for the invisible God? 

 

Our whole experience in walking with God is faith.  We never see ahead, only God does.

Yes

Faith

We can't see so it is blind light

 

God Bless!

Jen

Romans15:13

[Squirt]

Q4. (Isaiah 50:10-11) How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can't see where you're going?
    I believe that He is a promise-keeping God and He has promised that He will never leave me nor forsake me.  He has asked me to walk by faith and not by sight, to trust in Him and not lean on my own understanding.  
    He has not promised me that I will know anything beyond what He has just asked me to do.  Just do it, and leave the details to Him.
    Trust in Him that He knows the way forward and that He will guide you faithfully, and then go forward joyfully in faith.


Have you ever experienced fear in this situation?
    Yes.  

How do you continue?
    I spend time with Him in prayer.  When I’m really unsure, I find myself talking to Him often throughout the day.  

What is the danger of creating your own "light" to substitute for the invisible God?
    Our own ‘light’ is worldly reasoning and it won’t work.  Lean not on your own understanding, He tells us.  We’re too easily convinced that what we want is okay.   The more we work in our own strength and our own will, the easier it becomes to go through the day without thinking about God.  And the next day is easier still, until God is in our rearview mirror and we’re racing away from Him.  
 

[Delivered]

Q4. (Isaiah 50:10-11) How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can't see where you're going? The reason I can walk in darkness is because I fear the LORD and I have placed my trust in His Son, who has not left me alone, I have the calming spirit the Holy Spirit.

 

 

[wjcargile]

1. By faith (HEB:11) My faith and trust is in the LORD. He have brought me throught so many times when the way was very dark for me.

(HEB 13:5)God said "I will NEVER leave you. NEVER will I forsake you."

2. Have I ever experienced fear in this situation?

No, My faith and trust is solid in our GOD, He has never forsaken me. I have been in situation where their was a dead end, but GOD was there with me and made the way for me.

There are countless time when it seems there were no way out.

One example, was in Vietnam during the war. I was a distance from my comrads. I watched and prayed as I saw more than 20 enemy soldiers walked 10 feet from me and never saw me.

For this and so,so many countless things He has done for me...I give GOD Thanks and Praise Him.

3. I continue by faith, knowing His love and power.

4.The danger of creating my own light rather than the invisable GOD is: I will always take the wrong path, leading to disaster.

[antonate]

The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is my strength and my song. Even though i cannot see where i go i have made Jesus my all in all. He is my guide and the rock of my salvation. His love for me is steadfast.  i make Jesus my Lord and i abide in him and he gives me new strength each day and guides me into green pastures. with this confidence i keep going each day although i do not see things happen.

 

Yes i hav faced fear and anxiety in these situations. But then he has given me the grace to come back to his presence and hold on to his precious promises which has given me the strength to over come the fearful situation

 

i continue to praise and worship him and make a choice to obey his voice in the given situation and take guidance from him spending time in his presence.

 

creating my own light can separte me from my God. This can lead to destruction.

[humblejon]

One can trust in His Word and promises, the encouragement of others,prayer, and the comfort of God's Holy Spirit. Through experience and faith, I learned that trusting in my own "light" is fleeting and unreliable. I foolishly thought my life was great one minute and then suddenly have some terrible circumstance destroy that confidence and a wave of anxiety befalls me. Yet turning to God, trusting that He wil never leave or forsake me, and just submitting to His will for my life creates joy and peace that only God can provide.

[blezed]

How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can’t see where you’re going?

1.  By lending and depending on him and trusting Him to guide us.  It's called Faith!

 

Have you ever experienced fear in this situation? How do you continue?

2.  Yes I have.  Initial response is to try to fix the situation myself.  But I have grown enough in the Lord and learned to turn the situation over to Him.

 

What is the danger of creating your own “light” to substitute for the invisible God?

3.  We'll mess it up everytime!  When we place confidence in ourselves we will take the wrong path, we risk sorrow later.

[Craig]

Q4. (Isaiah 50:10-11) How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can’t see where you’re going? Have you ever experienced fear in this situation? How do you continue? What is the danger of creating your own “light” to substitute for the invisible God?

 

 

I walk by faith and not by sight.  I believe the Word of God and put my trust in the Lord.  There have been several situations that I have experienced fear and relied upon the Lord to walk me through them.  He walked me through them with encouragement, comfort, and they ultimately ended up being a training event which lead to my spiritual growth.

 

Our own light is not light at all.  God is light and Jesus Christ is the light of the world.  When a person has a vigorous relationship with God, the Lord is not so invisible after all.

 

 

[GoRaysXD]

Q4. (Isaiah 50:10-11) How can you trust the Lord to guide you when you can’t see where you’re going? Have you ever experienced fear in this situation? How do you continue? What is the danger of creating your own “light” to substitute for the invisible God? 

 

By having faith in him, trusting in him to help guide me.  

 

Not yet i am have still very young.. So i haven't experience as much.

 

We will fail every time we try it. We need God to help us and he wants us to ask for his help

[WinstonY]

Question 8.4

 

Trusting the Lord is like flying with radar in a great cloud, fog or darkness.  The pilot is unable to see where the airplane is going and so it is necessary for him or her to rely on the radar to guide the plane safely home.  So it is with us.  God is our radar who guides us when we cannot see the path.  We trust the radar we also need to trust god put our hand in his as we walk through the deep waters.  

Yes, I have experienced such fear and found my way in Isaiah 55

the pilot must fly blindly into the dankness trusting the  radar.  We must also learn to trust God and not our own reasoning.  If a pilot does not trust his instruments and relies instead on his won judgement, catastrophe is often the result.  Also when we do not follow the radar of our Lord in the scriptures and in the tradition of the church and in the revelation of God then we are headed for a crash.  

 

 

Winstony

[Old Jerry]

I think that trusting the Lord to guide you is something that you have to learn. You learn it by being in constant contact with the Lord and his word. I think that this is situation what we all go through sometimes. It is hard to see that end of the tunnel when is so dark. But if you follow the road it will lead you out. The trouble of creating your own “light” is that it isn’t bright enough to see the end of the tunnel. It will only light up the things around you.

[JoanG]

I believe that we need to have faith in God to know what is best for us. We need to let go of our fears and put our best food forward. We need to stop trying to open closed and locked doors. There is always fear to the unknown. However, if we think about the present moment and not the past or future, we are able to see more than the darkness. We can see that God is really showing us a light. When we try to make our own light, we will end up walking in much more darkness that can lead to a life filled with chaos.

[Krissi]

I'm in this situation now -- needing His guidance because the paths forward are occluded and horrible. Yes, I am afraid. I've staked everything I have and am on following Him and so far, to be honest, it's been getting worse. Rationally, I don't see a way out of this situation, one that preserves the integrity of my faith in Him. 

In situations like this, I wonder if there really is a clear-cut dichotomy between submitting and waiting for Him to act or make His will known, and doing something to extricate myself from a miserable situation. Does He expect us to use our minds ... does His Spirit infuse our thinking so that as we reason our way out of a situation we do His will? 

There's a fine line, in my experience, between waiting on the Lord to work in a situation and stepping out gingerly in faith. If stepping forward is the same as "creating light" as Pastor Ralph words it in His question, then perhaps moving toward the light like a moth is not always wrong.  This would not a brazen substitute for God's will, but a tentative stepping forward while expecting Him to correct the path and inspire the direction and motive. It's seeking His will in motion, not at a standstill. 

My danger is impatience, of panicking at the last moment and just doing something -- anything ! -- that relieves the pain and ends the stalemate. That would not be stepping out in faith, but would represent a lack of faith in His guidance and provision. While in this situation, it's difficult to discern one's own motivations, weaknesses, faith and intentions. 

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