Discerning What To Do

How do you discern what to do in situations? The Bible gives us general principals for life, but it doesn’t give us step-by-step explanations. It doesn’t tell me how to ask a neighbor to stop their dog from barking at ungoldy hours. It doesn’t tell me what home I should buy. It doesn’t tell me how to manage a job and aging parents and a plumbing problem all at the same time either.

Seems to me we need more than the Bible to live wisely. We need a counselor, someone who knows and wants what’s best for all people involved, who is available any time of the day, and has power to influence us from the inside out. Namely, God.

God is the only counselor with unlimited knowledge, unlimited love, and unlimited time. Unlike human counselors, God is able to get to the heart of the issue rather quickly and for no fee. And he’s not just interested in our making good choices—voting rightly or managing our time well—; he’s interested in our wanting what’s good too. For this sort of transformation, he needs to perform a rather unique operation on our life outlook.

Instead of our seeing God as someone to placate or pay in order to get answers out of, God wants us to see him as the answer itself. Instead of praying in order to get through something uncomfortable or tricky, God wants us to see him as the company that makes all uncomfortable and trick situations interesting and exciting.

Perhaps a better way to think of this difference is in the context of a classroom. Some people take a class to get a passing grade or a degree. Others take classes because they love learning. The same is true of life. Some people see barking dogs at ungodly hours and aging parents and plumbing problems as difficulties to just get through. Others see these difficulties as the holy ground upon which they get to be with God and grow. I don’t think I need to say that one of these ways is better and far more enjoyable than the other. We were made to love learning. We were made to be with God in all things.

Being with God is an entirely different way of operating. This isn't the normal self-reliant, self-dominating, self-trusting, self-preserving, self-asserting way of living. This is like changing the command center from me to him. This is what the Bible means when it says we are a new creation. The old way of figuring out life is not needed anymore.

So when we come to anything that needs wisdom, instead of looking into our bag of tricks to see what we’ve got, we meet with our heavenly counselor and ask him what he’s got. What does he have that makes everything more peaceful, more joyful, and more beautiful? He has promised to give us the power to make choices without fear of messing up our futures. He has given us the relief to know he has everything under control. He has given us love, acceptance and understanding like no one else. He has given us his stabilizing company through the dark uncertain times. And he provides the wisdom to discern a course of action.

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