Praying for Discernment
Romans 12:1-8, Psalm 18:1-7, 16-19, Matthew 6:24-29
Did you know that you can ask God for guidance? It might seem obvious, but how often do we take it to heart that the creator of everything, the Lord of the universe, the one who knows all things, wants to show us the way? Do you believe that God wants to guide you and will? In my experience, the reality of this is less a question of God’s ability to speak or guide, but more a question of my willingness to listen and follow. Remember, God became flesh, born among us, all so that we might meet him and so that he could show us the way back to him. God does not leave us alone in our struggles, instead he desires to lead us forward through faith, in love and towards the hope that is only possible with him.
I can not begin to tell you how much of a difference it has made in my life, relationships, and career when I began to understand that God wants to guide us. I can barely imagine now what life would be like without it. There are so many times in a day where I don’t know enough, when I am not capable enough, when two bad decisions seem to lie in front of me, when the future seems bleak, when I get angry or lost. Do you ever find yourselves in these situations? The hard reality is that without God’s guidance we are shooting in the dark, hoping we might hit the mark. It is a scary but sadly true analogy. Sure, we can base our decisions on the information we have, but honestly, I’m not always good at judging that limited information - I can too easily let fear, past experiences, or my desires get in the way of even the little I do know. We need God’s guidance.
This brings us to the first key step in receiving God’s guidance: we have to want it. This sounds easier than it is. God’s guidance in one moment might be easy like, “don’t have that second cup of coffee today”. Yet, we might resist even that simple direction, saying: but I’m used to two cups of coffee, it's a comfort in an exhausting and stressful day, its a break or a social outlet. Then, add onto those excuses the difficulty in recognizing God’s voice that we talked about last week, and you might ignore God’s guidance altogether, even for the mundane and simple directions.
But God’s guidance can often be really tough too. Let me just relate a few really tough things God has told me: “Take the abuse and instead respond with compassion. Hold someone accountable, even if it will be awkward and easier to avoid. Forgive the one who is hurting you. Hold out to the last minute for an unknown opportunity when other opportunities keep waving themselves in your face. Follow the group to promote unity even if it isn’t the best choice. Take the harder choice, even though you can’t see any good in it. Change your mind and heart. - I could take any one of these moments when God guided me and tell you about how my mind was reeling (unable to comprehend), and my body wanted to run away to another choice. Yet, I can tell you that every single time, I eventually could see what God knew, had planned, and was doing. Usually not right away, but through time, trust, and prayer, God would reveal to me what only hindsight could make clear to my limited brain and heart.
To really do this, to really be able to hear and follow God’s guidance we need to do what Paul is telling the Roman church: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”“ We need to be willing to give ourselves wholly over to God, as a living sacrifice, if we ever hope to follow something that seems counter to ourselves. How can we even hear a direction from God that leads us through danger when we are too busy trying to protect ourselves? How can we ever hear God’s hope and direction leading us to what we need, when we are too caught up in our own desires? How can we hear God’s wisdom that is beyond us, when we are too caught up in thinking we know best? I remember hearing a famous atheist say, “I can’t believe in a God, because I’d want to be God”. Well, one way or another, if we aren’t willing to give ourselves over as a living sacrifice, that is what we are doing - but sadly not in the right way.
This idea of presenting ourselves as a “living sacrifice” is really important. First, we are giving God the only true gift we can. Everything in this world is God’s only on lone to us as many parables tell us, the only thing we have is our freedom to choose - giving that to God - choosing him daily is the best and only gift we can give to the one who deserves every good gift. This helps to build the relationship with God that we talked about last Sunday and Ash Wednesday. Second, we are called to be living sacrifices. Our faith is not a one and done scenario, we are challenged to live our lives every day in faithful self-sacrificial service to God. This means that we should want God’s direction in everything and seek to follow it, even when it is tough. It means that our desires, impulses, and influences are drastically changed to centre around God and only God. So, it naturally follows that this living sacrifice leads to the renewal and transformation of our minds, which gives us the ability to discern God’s will.
This is a huge reality of the Christian faith, even if it is difficult. Yet, the interesting thing is that we, as followers of Christ, have begun to realize that the opposite choice, to not follow God is actually far harder. Sure, in the short term, a different decision might seem easier. Sure, the enemy often tries to promise us things that aren’t true. Sure, our desires often point in other directions. But God’s decisions are always better than the alternative. His forgiveness leads to fuller, richer and deeper relationships. His purposes for our lives are far more fitting, comfortable, good, lasting, and fruitful. His struggles are redeeming and life giving. His way is the narrow path that leads to life and eternal life at that. As Paul says, God’s will leads us to what is good, acceptable, and perfect.
Hopefully, you feel your spirit stirring up in you to want to seek out and follow God’s will. Hopefully, you are becoming more and more open to even the difficult commands while we pray and listen. Yet, how do we do this practically? Well, we do need to get to know God. We need to be able to recognize his voice as distinct and different from our own, or from our culture, friends or the enemy. The first thing we need to discern is who God is. We talked more to this last Sunday. Just as a reminder, we do this through spending time listening in prayer, bible reading, wresting with God’s work and word with other Christians, and relating all of this to our own life, experience, and wisdom. God has given us a lot of ways to get to know him, and like any romantic relationship, we should want to take all the opportunities we have to spend time with him.
Next, when you are praying for discernment, ask a question and take time to listen for God. Try your best to go to a prayerful, secluded place you can focus - especially when you are starting out - this helps to filter out some of the other noise. Try your best to focus on the question and the related ideas. Take note of anything that comes up for you: maybe it is an image, a word, a hope, a pro or a con. As you get distracted, consciously take note of the distraction and put it to the side. Having a journal to write all of this stuff has been helpful to many. Then, I normally do two things at the same time - I try to discern if what has come up for me fits with what I know about God - is it about faith, hope, and love as an example. At the same time, I try to discern what it means. Some further questions might be: If it is an image, how do each of those objects and their positions relate to the current situation? If it is a hope, what does that tell me about how to move forward? If it is a word, what is its meaning and significance? If it is a pro or a con, is this something that is what I want/don’t want so is it standing in my way - or is it something that God wants for me and the situation?
One thing to note here is that often, we ask the wrong question. The very question we ask can limit God’s ability to lead us. If we give him two options, we are often closed off to a third. If we say, should I do this, we can be closed off from what we should do. If we say is this good or bad, we might be closed off from something only having a piece of good. I have found that God responds in two ways when I am asking the wrong question, silence or a confusion that forces me to ask more questions or the same question in different ways. This then will bring me back to the steps I already talked about.
What I have found through my experience is that this takes time and is tough at first, but it gets easier. We have to continually be making sure that what we are hearing is from God, but we get better at recognizing him. We also find that it gets easier to follow because we have seen how trustworthy and good God’s direction is, even if oftentimes he challenges us to greater faithfulness in our following.
Paul says a lot more about discerning God’s will over our gifts, but I will have to encourage you to look at that yourselves.
Ultimately, what I want you all to know is that God wants to guide you through your life. He wants to show you his wonderful will that is hope, faith and love. Yet, the problem is that we too often get in the way. We don’t take time to know God, so that we might know his voice. We don’t take time to ask or listen for his guidance. We don’t remain open to where he is trying to lead us. We don’t follow his guidance when it is hard or doesn't align with what we think. Ultimately, we haven’t given ourselves as living sacrifices so that our minds might be transformed by the love and will of God. Yet, every moment we give, makes it a little easier to ask and hear. Every bit of ourselves that we give makes it a little easier to hear and follow. Every direction we follow makes it a little easier to trust and act the next time. God’s will is good and perfect - now we have to give ourselves over, to ask, listen, and follow.
Community discernment
The last practical direction I want to give you in discernment is related to our gifts. God gives all of us gifts and is continually building up new ones in us. The first thing is that all gifts are meant to be given to God in that same sacrificial service. If he is not the master over them, then we aren’t following him with the gifts we are given. Second, Godly gifts are meant for mutual edification. Everything is meant to lift up God, while we are also lifting up ourselves and our fellow Christians. Third, we should use the gifts God has given us for the purpose he gave them to us for. Teachers teach. The rich give, share, and welcome. The loving embrace and draw close and serves. These are not always talents as our culture defines them, but they are gifts that are mutually up lifting. Lastly, not everyone has every gift, and we need to be thoughtful about what we try to do and fill. We live in a community full of gifts and people, some things aren’t for you to fill, or sometimes your gift is to lift up another’s gift.
We all need help and guidance. I think out of ego and a desire for self-reliance, I want to caveat that need with sometimes. Yet, I think the truth is that we always need help and guidance. Most of us have experienced a moment where the most mundane act, or seemingly innocuous comment somehow becomes a great hurdle or struggle, usually because we don't know enough or couldn't interpret all of the things we do see. These are just small things, how much more do we need help and guidance in the big things like our careers, relationships, giving, identity, and more?
We don't know enough, and often, we aren't good enough, but God is. Thanks be to God. The best part is that he wants to help us and guide us, and he will help if we ask and are open and willing. Yet as simple as those words are, continually asking God means being humble enough to really depend on him. Being open means leaving space and taking time. Willingness means being willing to give up what we want, what we think, and our comfort to seek God's will. Even if we don't always trust God's guidance, we know that God's will is far better than ours and leads us to a life far better than our plans can.
Join us Sunday when we will look at Discernment: Praying for Guidance.
