I started reading Proverbs last week about discretion, wisdom & understanding. The note from the passage said “…..for some it’s a gift; for most it is developed by using God’s truth to make wise choices day by day. Hebrews 5:14 emphasizes that we must train ourselves…..”
My Life Group has been discussing how we could know God’s will and how we need to go to Him FIRST for all our decisions – even the small, minor ones that we think we can handle all by ourselves. It seems like no big deal to choose which parking space to take or what time to go to the grocery store or which computer to buy (yes, that decision was recently made) or whatever. He’s not really interested in those, right? And sometimes those small, minor decisions are a little bigger than that, but still not big ENOUGH to bother Him with…He’s busy, you know. And since we handled those just fine without Him, can’t we just handle these other problems without Him, too?
It’s like that childhood game “Mother May I?” Whether we take baby steps or giant steps without asking “Father, May I,” we don’t have to go back to the starting line or ask His permission for everything we do (1 Corinthians 10:23), but we certainly risk taking steps that may not be His perfect will for us. That may not grow us the way He desires. That may not further His kingdom.
Keeping in constant communication with the Lord as Brother Lawrence did (Practicing the Presence of God), along with all those other good spiritual disciplines, can give us a little help with all those “minor” decisions. If we pay attention. What if we don’t pay attention and miss a God appointment? What if He wanted our paths to cross someone’s who needed to hear just what we had to say? Or the opposite?
And taking even those baby steps ALL BY OURSELVES is that they can turn into giant steps that lead us away from Him, and we begin to become self-sufficient in our minds & hearts. I don’t know about you, but I struggle with the need to be in control. And struggle I do….it’s really tiring.
As my GC’s usually go, I am even reading a novel right now that has a dialogue between 2 characters:
“It’s not that easy to discern God’s will…”
“Maybe not, if you are looking for new answers. Maybe you should look for old answers. In the book. The Bible. I remember last summer you teaching that it is the words of God himself. Answers are made of words. And true answers never change.”
Here’s to true answers that never change.
Learning to Be 
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