WEEK 2 - DAY 3

STOP - Stop, Look and Listen

DAILY DIRECTIONS JOURNAL

UP - Lift Up Your Praise

Lord, I praise You for …

DOWN - Bow Down In Repentance

Lord, I repent of …

IN - Take In God’s Word

Maybe you grew up with the safety jingle, “Stop, look and listen before you cross the street.” That’s where Follow The Way’s Stop, Look and Listen comes from. The idea in this Daily Direction is to not hang up the phone after sharing your prayer requests with God. Give God time to speak to you. Better yet, invite God to speak to you. Ask, “Lord, what do you want to show me or say to me?”

God may show you something. An image or a circumstance or person’s face may come to mind. That may be God’s invitation to pray about that or reach out to that person. Or God may say something to you. You might think of a Bible passage, His Spirit may speak to your spirit in a still small voice or a thought may pop in your mind. These may be God’s directions for your life. Pray about it and ask Him how you are to respond.

And remember that God has already spoken to you through the Bible. That’s what the direction IN - Take In God’s Word is all about. The most important way that God speaks to us is through the Bible. To know God’s will, then, we need to know God’s Word. Having said that, the Bible itself clearly tells us that God also speaks to His people through inner thoughts, a still small voice, hunches, visions and dreams and all manner of communications that are geared to the individual He is addressing. These communications, of course, are never on the same level as the Bible and they must be tested against what is written in the Bible and in community. But to be Biblical, it’s important to regularly pause and invite God so speak to us and to do this with the expectation that He will communicate to us and that we will obey Him. Once again, to hear is to obey.

John 10:27

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

Isaiah 30:21

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it.”

Acts 8:26-35

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
    and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

Lord, I hear You saying to me …

Now, with Your help I will …

OUT - Pray Out Your Requests

Lord, I pray for …

STOP - Stop, Look and Listen

Lord, what do You want to show me or say to me?

GO - Go Through Your Day

Lord, I pray for Your help as I anticipate these events today …