Discerning Guidance
Many of you reading this blog have a desire to know GOD'S direction & to follow it. His guidance is more than an option for you to choose. It is the only path you desire to travel (for the most part anyway). I read the following from Ruth Haley Barton, http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/ & found it to be enlightening. The analogy is helpful to me as I think about the flow of GOD'S purposes & my life.
Discernment is a way of approaching life that has to do with sensing the movement of God’s Spirit and abandoning ourselves to Him just like we might give ourselves to the experience of being in water. Sometimes abandoning ourselves to the will of God is like floating down a
river: we lay back and allow the current of the river to carry us along. At other times it is more like trying to run the rapids or ride a wave: we must keep our whole self alert and attuned to the dynamic of the water as it flows over rocks and around corners and over rapids so that we can ride it to its destination rather than being toppled by its force. Either way, we do not set the direction or the speed of the current; rather, we seek to read the elements so that we can move with it and find the best way to let it carry us in the direction God has for us.
One way to discern God’s leading in our lives is to pay attention to that which gives us a sense of connection with God, an ability to be our most authentic selves in God and to bring our authentic self to others in love.
At the beginning of this new year, take a few moments to ask God to bring to your heart elements of your life which are most life-giving: moments for which you have been most grateful, times when are you most able to give and receive love, people and situations that are life-giving for you.
Much like Henry Blackaby discusses in Experiencing GOD, GOD'S plan is a flow of activity all around us already. It is not so much a matter of discovering it as it is a matter of just getting in the water. If we will seek to know the heart of GOD, we will come to know the will of GOD.
That which connects us most closely to GOD will be the thing that propels us into the future with joy, hope, and confidence.
Many of you reading this blog have a desire to know GOD'S direction & to follow it. His guidance is more than an option for you to choose. It is the only path you desire to travel (for the most part anyway). I read the following from Ruth Haley Barton, http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/ & found it to be enlightening. The analogy is helpful to me as I think about the flow of GOD'S purposes & my life.
Discernment is a way of approaching life that has to do with sensing the movement of God’s Spirit and abandoning ourselves to Him just like we might give ourselves to the experience of being in water. Sometimes abandoning ourselves to the will of God is like floating down a
river: we lay back and allow the current of the river to carry us along. At other times it is more like trying to run the rapids or ride a wave: we must keep our whole self alert and attuned to the dynamic of the water as it flows over rocks and around corners and over rapids so that we can ride it to its destination rather than being toppled by its force. Either way, we do not set the direction or the speed of the current; rather, we seek to read the elements so that we can move with it and find the best way to let it carry us in the direction God has for us.One way to discern God’s leading in our lives is to pay attention to that which gives us a sense of connection with God, an ability to be our most authentic selves in God and to bring our authentic self to others in love.
At the beginning of this new year, take a few moments to ask God to bring to your heart elements of your life which are most life-giving: moments for which you have been most grateful, times when are you most able to give and receive love, people and situations that are life-giving for you.
Much like Henry Blackaby discusses in Experiencing GOD, GOD'S plan is a flow of activity all around us already. It is not so much a matter of discovering it as it is a matter of just getting in the water. If we will seek to know the heart of GOD, we will come to know the will of GOD.
That which connects us most closely to GOD will be the thing that propels us into the future with joy, hope, and confidence.
posted by Bruce Pittman @ Wednesday, February 18, 2009
1 Comments
