Re-Posted from "Meditations of a Charismatic Calvinist Who Does Not Speak in Tongues"
Does God guide us, or are we left to our own wisdom? And how do we
recognize God's leading? Now God is in control of all things (Ephesians
1:11) and causes all things to work together for good to those who are
called by Him (Romans 8:28). He has prepared certain good works
beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10), and the
Spirit's leading is based on our being sons of God (Romans 8:14). I
would therefore conclude that God guides every genuine child of God.
This is a fact and is not dependent on my feelings or on my figuring it
out. Nor does the fact God leads us mean it will always be easy, but it
does mean He will go through troubles with us (John 16:33)
Now
sometimes God allows us to feel that He is leading us, but knowing His
leading is not just based on our feelings. On the contrary, while I
believe God can use our careful weighing of the facts or circumstances
or feelings to lead us where He wants us to go, I do not believe we
should trust in any of these. Nor do I believe we should direct our
lives based purely on what makes sense to us from a human point of view.
Rather, we should trust in God that He will direct us to where we
should be. And in any situation we must prayerfully ask whether
something is indeed God guiding us or our imagination. But we need to do
so with the confidence that God is in control of our life and will
direct us where we need to be. I remember walking into a church for the
first Sunday and hearing the pastor say that he was not going to be in
charge of the Sunday School and maybe someone who just walked in the
door was the person for the job. I felt like God tapped me on the
shoulder and told me I was the one. As it turned out, I was. But I
still approached the situation with caution and let God bring everything
together, rather than jumping in too quickly based on my feeling. But
it did direct me.
Now I want to make it clear that the
main thing is obedience to God's revealed will (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
Though even when we do disobey He can arrange things, like He did for
Jonah, to bring us back to the right path (see the book of Jonah). But
my concern is for those who honestly want to obey God but are afraid if
they do not have the right feeling or use the right method they will
miss God's direction in their lives. Or they may come to trust in their
feelings or the method rather than God. For I am convinced the reason
God does not give us a formula to determine His leading is we must not
come to trust the formula rather than Him.
I like what this says. Part of trusting God is trusting not only his sovereignty but his providence too.
ReplyDeleteSovereignty without providence tends to become just an abstraction. Providence is sovereignty at work in the world.
ReplyDelete