She was Ready to End Her Life, But then God Spoke to Her…

In a daze, she drove to the river.

She would end her life tonight.

Dark.  Her life seemed so dark.

So hopeless…

She sat on the bank and looked across the river toward the setting sun – a beautiful, bright orange ball, slowly sinking toward the horizon.

Then it was gone, its beauty still reflecting off the clouds above, filling the sky.

She knew that the God who made this beautiful world did not want her to take her own life.

“Thank you, God”, she breathed, and walked away from the river as quickly as she could.

After a few days she found the courage to tell her fiends what had almost happened. They told her they loved her. They hugged her. They cried with her.  Many prayed with her.

There was one last person to tell, the man considered the spiritual leader of her family.
Hesitantly she sat down on his couch and told him the story.

“It was like God was sending me a message in that sunset”, she said.  Her eyes brimming with tears ready to fall, she waited for his response.

“So you think God sent you a message?”

“Yes”

“Then you are of the devil, and it is the devil you heard.”

She sat in stunned silence.

“God never talks to people. The Bible says he doesn’t even respect us, let alone love us. Now go get your Bible, start reading it and make sure you do everything it says or when you die, Jesus will say, ‘I never knew you!’ ”

Stunned, she rushed out of his house and sat sobbing in her car .

He was the spiritual head of her family. His words carried great weight. His was the voice of authority.

“God, I know it was you”, she prayed. “I know it was you. Please help me. Help me to believe.”

The words of a familiar Bible verse filled her mind.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Suddenly she knew.  She knew whose voice she had heard on the river bank and whose voice she would follow.

Note:  This post is the second in a row about discerning God’s voice in the middle of all the competing voices in the world, sometimes even voices claiming to speak for him.  (You can read the first post about hearing God’s voice here.)  

Like all posts on everdayservant.com the story is true.  It is personal to me since I know all of the people involved. 

Here are some Bible verses that have helped me when I am trying to discern God’s will.

What other verses would you suggest?

Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 – But test everything; hold fast what is good.

James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning

Galatians 5:22 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith…