Green Lights

There are moments in life when you pray for direction and expect the answer to arrive in some dramatic fashion—something unmistakable, something impossible to miss.

But in my experience, God rarely operates that way.

More often, His answers show up through patterns, through repetition, through quiet confirmations that only begin to make sense if you're paying attention.

And sometimes, if we’re being honest, God’s got jokes.

Recently my wife and I experienced one of those moments. Not the kind you plan for, and certainly not the kind you can manufacture—but the kind where, when you look back on it, you realize God may have been answering the very question you had been praying about all along.

For a while we had been discussing a particular venture together. It was something meaningful, something that carried both opportunity and responsibility. Naturally, we did what we try to do whenever we’re standing at the intersection of decision and purpose—we prayed about it.

Not casually, and not just once.

We talked about it nearly every day. We reflected on it, sat with it, and asked God for clarity. When you’ve lived long enough and walked through enough storms, you learn that rushing decisions rarely produces wisdom.

Patience becomes part of the discipline.

So we waited.

“Sometimes the answer to prayer isn’t a single moment of clarity—it’s a pattern of confirmations we only recognize once we slow down enough to notice them.”

One morning we were watching a sermon together, and during the message the preacher kept repeating a phrase: “God is giving you a green light.”

He said it once early in the message, and then later circled back to it again. At one point he even laughed and said, “God is trying to make you understand—you have the green light.”

My wife and I looked at each other and laughed too. But it wasn’t the kind of laugh that comes from something simply being funny. It was one of those reflective laughs—the kind where something resonates a little deeper than the moment itself.

You hear it, but you also feel it.

Later that same day we headed to the grocery store. Earlier storms had knocked out power to the traffic lights at a busy intersection. Cars were backed up well down the road, and drivers were cautiously navigating the crossing as if it were a four-way stop.

We waited there nearly twenty-five minutes, slowly inching forward as each car took its turn. At one point I said, half joking, “Watch… by the time we get up there, it’ll be green.”

We both laughed.

But when we finally reached the front of the line, something unexpected happened. At that exact moment the power came back on. The traffic lights flickered to life, and the light turned green for us.

We drove through the intersection, and for a moment neither of us said much. The car was quiet as we both processed what had just happened, almost replaying the moment in our heads. It was one of those rare instances where the timing felt so precise, so perfectly aligned with everything we had been hearing that day, that it left you sitting with it for a moment.

Later, as we walked through the store, we passed a large display at the front featuring Michael McConaughey’s book titled Greenlights. At that point we both laughed again.

.

...And we bought the book.

Not because we needed another book, but because by then it was pretty clear—something more was unfolding. Those moments weren’t random. They were confirmations.

“Prayer is not only about asking God for direction. It’s about developing the awareness to recognize the answer when it begins to show up.”

When God Speaks, Do We Recognize It?

Here’s something I’ve observed about people—including myself.

We pray for guidance. We sincerely ask God for direction. But when the answer begins to appear, we sometimes hesitate to accept it.

We analyze it. We second-guess it. Sometimes we even convince ourselves that what we heard wasn’t God at all.

Maybe it was just a thought. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe we’re reading too much into it. But the truth is, God often speaks in ways far more subtle than we expect. Not because He’s unclear, but because He invites us into a relationship that requires attentiveness.

Prayer isn’t only about talking to God.

Prayer is also about learning how to listen.

And listening requires patience, awareness, and humility.

Faith Requires Movement

Thinking about all of this later reminded me of something simple.

Think about how a GPS works. When you enter a destination, it doesn’t immediately list every instruction for the entire trip. It simply gives you the first direction.

Then you move.

As you begin driving, the next instruction appears, and then the next. But if you never leave the driveway, the directions never change.

Faith works in much the same way.

We ask God for direction. We pray for clarity. But once that clarity begins to show up, movement becomes part of obedience.

Scripture reminds us of this truth:

“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him.” — Psalm 37:23

Notice the language there.

God orders our steps, not our hesitation.

Sometimes we tell ourselves we’re being cautious, that we’re waiting for more confirmation. But if we’re honest, hesitation can quietly become something else—fear, second-guessing, or the desire for comfort before obedience.

The reality is that the greater risk in life isn’t always moving forward.

Sometimes the greater risk is staying exactly where you are.

Because when God provides the green light, the next step isn’t more analysis.

The next step is movement.

Recognizing Your Green Lights

Many people spend years waiting for a sign from God while overlooking the ones already surrounding them.

A conversation that speaks directly to something you’ve been praying about. A message that keeps repeating itself. An opportunity that keeps appearing in front of you. God rarely hands us the entire blueprint.

More often He gives us the next step—and waits to see if we’re willing to take it.

“God often reveals the path one step at a time—not because He’s testing us, but because faith requires movement.”

Moving Forward

Looking back, that moment wasn’t really about traffic lights or coincidences.

It was about recognizing when God is prompting us to move.

In the work I do every day—walking alongside people rebuilding their lives, restoring relationships, and rediscovering purpose—I see how often people pray for direction while standing still. Not because they lack faith, but because the next step requires courage.

Faith rarely comes with a full blueprint. More often it comes as a quiet invitation to take the next step forward.

As the theologian Oswald Chambers once wrote:

“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”

Faith isn’t the absence of uncertainty. It’s the willingness to move when God has already made the direction clear.

Because sometimes the greatest opportunities in life aren’t missed because God didn’t open the door.

They’re missed because we hesitated when the light turned green.

Keep moving forward

-Troy Rienstra