"Yada, Yada"

I don’t know if you’re a fan of Seinfeld, but one of the funniest episodes involved the use of the phrase “yada, yada”. Used in this context, it was meant to condense the story or gloss over the details of the story. “I was going to the store and ‘yada, yada’, I ended up spending $100 dollars”. I don’t know if the writers knew the Hebrew translation or not, but there’s more to ‘yada’ for you and me than just a placeholder in conversation.

It seems one of the most reoccurring situations that church planters/pastors find themselves in is the need to know the direction of God. Whether it’s where a church plant should be located, the name of the new church, or even the color scheme/logo of the new ministry. It would be helpful if God, in His mercy, would just hit us over the head with the correct answer. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for us) God designed things so that we would seek a relationship with Him and not just use Him as a Magic Eight Ball when we need an answer.

Proverbs 3: 5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

According to the Spirit Filled Life Bible (NKJV), two words stand out in this passage that will shed light on hearing God when things are muddy for us.

• “ways” (Hebrew: derek), this word indicates “a road, a course” and suggests a specific opportunity that a person may encounter on a recurring basis such as each new day that we wake up. This passage suggests that in all our “days” we should acknowledge God.
  
• The other word of significance here is “acknowledge” (Hebrew: yada’), this is translated “know, know by observation, or firsthand experience”. The highest level of yada’ is in “direct, intimate contact” such as is experienced in marriage.
  

To pull it all together, if we will in all our days maintain ‘yada’ (intimate contact with God), then God promises to direct our paths toward His life-giving answer. If you find yourself struggling to know the will or direction of God, it means that you’re trying to work it out yourself without the benefit of God’s intimate direction. Spend some quality time with Him, and ‘yada, yada’ you’ll find that things run a lot smoother.