Little Whispers

Sometimes in life we have to make decisions.  Sometimes they are easy things like "what are we going to eat for dinner?", though if you ask my husband he will tell you that sometimes this is the hardest decision to make.  Sometimes they are major life questions like should I move or should I take this job.  For years I have asked myself both the easy and hard questions and often times when asking the advice of others they say, "just pray."

While I am a firm believer that you should go to pray for all decisions (OK maybe not the what am I having for dinner decision), I also know that sometimes things happen so fast or need to happen so fast that you can't spend days or weeks or months in prayer.  Sometimes you have to make immediate decisions and your prayer has to be quick.

But there is another aspect that I think God gives us in the middle of quick decisions and that is the feeling - the feeling of the Holy Spirit.  God knows.  God knows that at times you can't pray as much or as long as you would like but He knows you want his guidance and you want to do what is in His will.  I think it is times like this that God allows the Holy Spirit to nudge us in the direction that God was going to send us anyway.

This happened today - to me.  I needed to make a decision on something pretty quickly.  It would be something that would in many ways change my whole world.  It would affect me, my family, my friendships.  I needed to make a decision but it had to be quick, so praying for days or weeks on it wasn't an option for me.  Sure, I prayed on my way to work and I prayed while I was preparing for my day, but I still hadn't heard the Lord in his booming voice say, "Heather, this is what you should do"  (I'm not even sure that's what God really sounds like).

But then I started thinking about why I wanted to make this decision - was I doing it for the right reasons; was it really worth it?  Then I had a conversation with someone about the decision I needed to make and while in that room, I felt peace.  I knew before I walked out of there what my decision was going to be.  In fact, if I'm honest with myself, I knew what my decision was going to be before I even walked in the room.  It was there, just a little whisper, just a little nudge.

Sometimes God doesn't answer with a big booming voice from the Heavens, sometimes He sends the Holy Spirit to place His hand on your shoulder and say "I've got you".  So the next time you need to make a decision or need God to answer a prayer, don't just listen for the big boom, listen for the little whispers too.