How to Find a Message from God in a Stop Sign

We are always adventuring and traveling. Through these travels, the eyes are always wide open looking all around. I started challenging myself to relate signs along the roads traveled to faith and Christianity. Basically find a message from God in road signs.

Recently, I saw a stop sign and the word “stop” became surrender, trust, obey and praise. We must stop whatever we are doing and following these four words. In fact, I believe I’ve heard a stop sermon in the past. Here is my interpretation.

Surrender-

As Christians, we must always remember to surrender. It’s a very common theme throughout the Bible. We have to surrender our interests that are not the way of the Lord. We gain strength and understanding through the surrender. We basically are putting all our trust in him. This leads to the next point. 

20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20 NIV

Trust-

A person must stop and trust God.

Trust in the Lord with all your heartand lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

We can’t truly trust others. But, we can always trust God. Sometimes things might seem really horrible. A person might feel in a place that they are never going to get out of, however, God will never leave them or forsake them. 
Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV

Obey–

Obeying isn’t a simple task. It is never easy to stop and obey. It’s not an easy task in our day to day lives and especially with our walk. It’s human nature to want to do things the way we want to do them. But that’s not what God wants. He does understand we are made of the flesh and will be tempted and struggle. However, when a person starts obeying, that’s when the true walk begins.

 A person might have to give up worldly things, certain people that make them temporarily feel good. However, in the end, these things just leave a person broken. Remember, you can’t take worldly things with you. 

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

Jon 14:23 NIV

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.

Deuteronomy 28:1

25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.

Matthew 7:24-27

If a person doesn’t obey God, their foundation will collapse. However, when a person obeys God, great things can happen. 

Praise–

Now that a person has surrendered, trusted and obeyed, they can praise. They can praise the fact that their house is built on solid ground. 

 Every part of our mind and body can now sing his praises. My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long.

Psalm 71:8 NIV

And through the trust that fills the heart praise can now happen! The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

Psalm 28 NIV

We praise because we have surrendered, trusted and obeyed and even in the best of times and darkest of storms, we can still praise Him. Our lives are filled with joy and happiness.

People who have not stopped-

Throughout the Bible and history, there have been people who have not stopped. In fact, at the very beginning of the Bible Adam and Even did not STOP. God had given them everything their hearts could desire. Yet, they surrendered to temptation and ate the forbidden fruit. They listened to the snake in the Garden instead of God. They did not trust and absolutely did not obey Him when he told them not to eat from the tree. As a result, they ended up not praising God. Instead, they became aware of their nakedness and felt guilty for what they had done. Genesis 2:4-3:24

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

After this, God told them each individually the consequences for their actions before they were then sent out of the Garden of Eden creating the first original sin.

People that have stopped-

In Contrast in the very same book in the Bible, Noah did STOP. He did everything right when everyone around him chastised him for listening to God and building the boat. Noah listened to God’s instructions and obeyed Him even bringing two of every species on the boat. He listened to God when God gave very specific plans and measurements for the boats. Even what food to bring. God had many orders for Noah and he followed God’s orders. Each and everyone, he obeyed and trusted.

Everyone else drowned in the flood besides Noah and his family. However, by Noah surrendering, trusting and obeying, he was able to Praise God in the end because he and his family were spared. This must not have been easy especially because of the rain lasting for forty days and forty nights. As a person, can you imagine being stuck on a boat for that long with no land in sight? Only after 150 days floating did God let everyone off the boat.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 

Genesis 6-9

Final Thoughts-

STOP. Surrender, trust, obey and praise. Next time you are driving down the road and stop at that stop sign, remember these four simple words. By following them along with prayer and reading the Bible, a person can travel down a road knowing they are filled with Lord no matter what that road tosses at them.