Faith by Spreadsheets?

I spend a lot of my working days carrying out calculations of one type or another. They can be vital to a project and inform important decisions, such as whether to spend millions of pounds and protect people's homes or not. Making sure that the answer I give is correct, accurate, reliable can be immensely important.

That's why we build checks and verifications into the spreadsheets we use. And that's why I spent 2 hours yesterday trying to work out why I couldn't get my numbers to agree! The joys of technology!


As I took a break from the annoying warnings about my sums, I thought about how I had been asking the same thing of God.

I had requested verification. I wanted the same message, which would confirm the original message, but in a different way. Through a different person, written across the sky, in neon flashing lights! Then I would know for sure that it was correct. I would know that I could make important decisions based on this word because it had been validated, backed-up, proven.

But then where would my faith be?

My fear of failure was stopping me from stepping out just in case I was wrong. What if God hadn't said that to me? What if I was just hoping he'd said that to me?

Have you ever asked God to confirm what He has said to you?

When is it ok to ask for more, a sign, to test God's word? (Judges 6:36-40)
And when should we just step out in faith and not bow to our fears?