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We all do this don’t we?  Even when we know at heart that God’s will is that we do something or follow some path, we look for proof.  “Is that really you, God?”  We want assurance now because to rely on faith is frightening.

14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.”
15 He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
16 The Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.”
17 Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.
18 Do not depart from here until I come to you, and bring out my present, and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”
19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them.
20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.
21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.
22 Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, “Help me, Lord God! For I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”
23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die.”
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it, The Lord is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.  Judges 6:14-24 (NRSV)

When Gideon actually had his proof, however, he found it even more frightening.  I wonder if that’s not how we would react as well.  I mean, if we actually knew that “still, small voice” urging us to do what is right and avoid what is wrong was really and truly the eternal Creator of the universe . . . doubt would be erased, but fear would follow but for his words, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die.”

God’s Word for us.