The waiting is the hardest part.
Trying to make a decision?
Trying to figure it all out?
Have you been praying for God’s guidance attempting to find an answer? I had two conversations today both centering on what the person was going to do with his life.
A nun who was acting as my spiritual director once told me that discernment is only for the next step and not for the next 25 years. I am not trying to know the complete path I will take through life. I am only seeking the next step. The question is always, "What does God want ?" According to the Quaker tradition, spiritual discernment is about seeking what God wants.
This is where life can be a bit frustrating. Where’s God? Why won’t God just tell me what God wants me to do? As I said to someone earlier, the waiting is the hardest part. We can rest assured that if we are seeking God’s will, God is definitely at work doing what God does best, being God.
There is a God and I am not it. I do not have to force solutions. I don’t have to make something happen by self-will. I don’t have to play God with my life or anyone else’s life. I can trust that God, in God’s timing, will lead me to my next step. There is an old saying, "When in doubt, don’t." I have learned that if I am stuck, have no peace and I am in doubt about a decision, I’ll wait until I have a greater sense of inner-peace whether that requires 10 minutes or 10 months.
The biggest decision I have to make each day is to turn my will and my life over to God and to trust God with the details of my life. Essentially, I have to surrender my tomorrows to God in advance. That can be so difficult, but somehow when I manage to let God be God, God always leads me to something more than I would ever have given myself. It is usually effortless.
A client once told me, "When God wants you to have it. God will place it in the palm of your hands." In the meantime, I’ll just take one step at a time and walk through the open doors. If I come to a closed door, I may just sit, hangout for a while, rest and wait on God.
7 Comments:
I have to wonder what Abraham thought when God said, "Pack up everything and start walking. I'll tell you where we're going when we get there..."
It never ceases to amaze me when I find myself in sync with other believers no matter the distance between us or whether or not we've discussed certain topics before or not. This is just another amazing example of an unblelievable God at work in my life and quite obviously at work in the life's of others across this orb. I just finished a chapter dealing with this in a book by Phil Strout called God's Relentless Pursuit.
Have you ever considered that instead of us chasing God, He is actually the one chasing us? In his book, author Phil Strout explores God’s mission on earth and how His people join in His mission: to draw people into relationship with Him. Many common ideas and notions regarding our role in pursuing God are challenged as we discover the truth about what God is doing in and around us, both across the street and across the oceans. Be expectant that your view of the world in which you live will change after discovering God’s relentless pursuit.
Check it out if this tickles your ears...
Wow, thanks for that. It is really appropriate to where I am right now...and I needed to read it! I have a hard time waiting, but I think you are correct saying when it doubt...wait. It's hard for me to not want to rush to do the next thing. But, it's also true that the next step IS the next step...I have to remind myself it's not the next 25 years of my life or whatever. Okay, I'm waffling...
I didn't have my book when I posted last, but after re-reading the last passage thought that I needed to include the following:
Gerald Sittser, the author of The Will of God as a Way of Life, explains his discovery of God's will:
As I struggled with the issue of discovering God's will in light of my own personal uncertainty, intense suffering, and in-depth biblical study, I came to a startling conclusion. The will of God concerns the present more than the future. It deals with our motives as well as our actions. It focuses on the little decisions we make every day even more than the big decisions we make about the future. The only time we really have to know and go God's will is the present moment. We are to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Sometimes, we can make God's will so difficult to grasp that we forget that there are simple commands God gives us, enabling us to to do His will each day. God is not trying to trick us--He wants us to get it.
For this is the will of God, your sanctification;
1 Thessalonians 4:3
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rick,
thanks so much for this! I have struggled with this exact issue for the past few weeks. This problem has come and gone through the past years. What I find is I that I have the most peace about where I am when I see life's purpose as knowing God and becoming a disciple of Christ. When I become too focused on other things like me and anxieties about the future that's when doubts about God start to arise - like "can He be trusted with what He's doing?" or even more so "is He doing anything in my life at all?"
Thanks again for posting this
Maiken
Rick,
That was pretty good stuff right there. This has become a practice in my daily life. There is no use breaking your hand knockin the door down, it is better to wait for the right time.
Thanks,
Josh
Ah, Rick, you struck yet another nerve with this one.
I'm reminded of when I was first sober, and was waiting for several sticky issues to resolve themselves. A guy told me, "The only way God answers the prayer 'Please give me patience' is, 'Wait...it will come to you.' "
The tragedy is to see how easy it still is for me to get to the stage of the game where my primary thought is, "Patience, my &$#, I'm gonna kill something."
I'm just ready to do something else - even if it's wrong - just to be moving *some*where. "Wait upon the Lord" must have gotten tiring to the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert, too, I guess.
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