Prayer for Direction.
Something that keeps rearing its head over and over again in various conversations is this idea of how to seek God it times of decision and direction. After conversations with Joel, we narrowed it down to two trains of thought.
The first thought is to pray to God and wait for an answer. This may be in a sign, an audible voice, a Bible verse, an angel or some other supernatural way. Jesus used to go and spent time praying to God about things to come.
On the other hand, there is the philosophy of trying the doors and see what happens. Take the initiative and take action. Make your actions your prayers as you investigate what Gods plan for you is. God told Moses to do this when the Exodus took place.
So both ideas are biblical. I guess my question is simple: How does this work in practice? How long to wait for God to speak before we start to take action? Do just skip that part because it doesn’t usually happen?
I would appreciate your thoughts on this.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:09 am
I think doing both ways at the same time time is the best. If you are open God will ensure that you do not go down the wrong path. I beleive God is concerned with who you ARE more than what you DO. He will ask “did you love me?” rather than “where did you live and work?”
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
“I beleive God is concerned with who you ARE more than what you DO.” - Very interesting, but doesn’t WHERE you are effect WHO you are? Change changes us. Where you live and what you are doing will change who you are, the way you think, etc. Don’t you think?
March 5th, 2008 at 10:47 am
No I dont think essentially that is true. We may do different things in different circumstances but we are essentiall the same person
March 6th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
How to seek God in times of decision and direction?
Are you doing what you were born to do?
A talk I heard last year, based on Isaiah 61 – What was Jesus’ ‘because factor’?…
“Every decision was based on it – his [Jesus] heaven mission was the very very central thing to His world that everything else revolved around.”
Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, because…”
“We need to be clearer in our objectives than we were say 2 years ago. We need to be clearer than we were 1 year ago. Not just living a life out of reaction, reacting to things that are coming at us, but pro-active. Fuelled by a commitment to Christ and fuelled by this ‘because factor’ on our lives.
“Take responsibility – take responsibility for this because factor in your life. You might feel so underpowered and underfueled right now, and just not confident. It’s usually because we haven’t written that because factor. Why are you alive? What do you want to see God do through your life? “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because.” You know, I have always taken great courage in this verse – Proverbs 16:9, and it says:
“In their hearts, human beings plan their course…” But then it says, “But the LORD establishes their steps.”
You know if you are stepping out, and it is not the perfect will of God and you get all caught in that, “What if it’s not in God’s will?”. Don’t Panic. At least you are moving forward. And if your heart, which is what the scripture is saying, is open to God, and to wise, appropriate counsel, with the right agenda, then you can be confident – God WILL establish your steps. And that means taking something that is not stable, and simply making it stable. Making your steps firm – concrete with a sense of history, and a sense of eternity to it. I love it.”