Signs. Many Christians, especially those who are young in the faith, ask God for them. We normally pray to God to give us a sign of His favor, a sign that something is His will, a sign that He is the one talking to us through a still small voice in our minds.
But is it right to ask God for a sign? Is it acceptable before God, or are we just being superstitious about Him?
Let's talk about that.
Superstition versus truth
To be superstitious means having "excessively credulous belief in and reverence for supernatural beings." Superstitious people are "full of idle fancies and scruples in regard to religion." As such, they naively put too much emphasis on something that exists in their imagination.
Our God, however, is not a figment of our imagination. The opposite, actually, is what is true: we are the products of His creative imagination. He is true, but we can only attest to His reality if we believe in what Christ Jesus has said. As John 3:33 puts it,
"He who has received [Christ's] testimony has certified that God is true."
With these in mind, we come to the realization that superstition is based on fantasy, while God is truth.
What the connection is
Now what does this have to do with the question posed by this article's title? Everything.
Many people who don't know God ask for signs to prove Himself. Consider Jesus' conversation with a few religious people who didn't really know God:
"Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed." (Matthew 16:1-4)
Based on this exchange, we see a few things:
1) Those who don't believe God keep asking for signs
The Pharisees and Sadducees, even after hearing and seeing Jesus do what He does, remain unbelieving and demand that a sign be given to them.
Such are the superstitious people who really don't know and believe in God. They ask for signs, as if it's God's job to convince them to turn from their unbelief. The truth is that it's our job to choose to believe in God. That's called faith.
2) God does give signs, but only according to His will
God does not like leaving us to grope in the dark. He loves to be known and make Himself known to us, and He also wants His will to be made known to us. One of the ways He does this is through signs and wonders.
In the above passage, Christ spoke of His resurrection three days after His death. At other times, He showed signs of God's hand through the healings that He had done (see John 3:2). His own life was also a sign of God's great love for all mankind (see John 14:9; 2 Corinthians 5:19).
In Closing
Friends, let us ask ourselves why we ask God for a sign. Let us realize that we have God's word, and His word is enough. Asking Him for a sign out of a lack of faith is actually wrong, "for whatever is not from faith is sin." (Romans 14:23)
Thus, the real issue here is not the signs that God gives, but our faith in Him. He has already given us His word, our Bibles. Do we believe Him and what He has said? Or are we lacking in faith that we need to ask for a tangible sign even when He has already declared something?
I pray that as Christians, we'd all be like Abraham, "who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be." And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.
"He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness."" (Romans 4:18-22)
