Gimme Some Kind of Sign

If poker was like a TV game show (and some TV game shows have been poker-based), the atmosphere would be much different. The players would look to the audience for advice. The crowd would shout "CALL!" or "FOLD!" And peppy band music would play when someone takes a big pot - or maybe buzzers sounding when someone acts out of turn.

But most poker rooms don't work that way. In fact, we can't think of any. Not even online. So players are on their own to make big decisions - and many look for every tiny bit of help they can find.

As we suggested in a recent post, let's consider how to get "messages from above" - in poker or elsewhere. At the table, veteran players try to "read" their opponent. They might ask questions, while looking for gestures from the face or body to give away what they're facing.

A former boss advised us when it came to making decisions on the job, our "gut" would tell us the right thing to do. We admittedly disagreed with that approach:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? - Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV)

Yet we also must admit we heard from that same boss many times about wrong decisions we made - even when we prayed for God's wisdom to guide us in the course of a work day. How could that happen? Perhaps the answer is in another part of the Bible:

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. - Isaiah 55:9

The boss usually was thinking on an "earthy" level. God wants us to think higher - and look to Him.

So how do we do that in poker? Our years at the table have shown we don't always get reads right. (Then again, does anybody?) But in key moments, we've tried to listen for a prompting - one that no one may be able to hear.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." - Isaiah 30:21

Some say this verse really applies to the coming Kingdom of God which Jesus Christ will bring to Earth. But sometimes we think God has prompted us to make certain moves which have turned out for our good. And yes, we have Scripture to back up such an idea:

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. - I Kings 19:12

This chapter is about how God encouraged Elijah when he was fearful and on the run. God spoke with "a still small voice," as one Bible translation puts it. That's what we try to hear when we're playing poker.

Sometimes that voice comes through. Sometimes it doesn't. And if we hear it wrong, we do not blame God. We know better than that. We simply ask Him for wisdom to better understand the message next time.

So we end by asking: Are you listening for God's voice in your life - at all? He might have something important to tell you.