People often ask me as a pastor, “How can I know the will of God?” It’s a good question — a central question as we seek to live out the life of faith. When we face tough decisions, when we stand at a fork in the road and wonder which way is the right way, we are called to the hard work of “spiritual discernment,” seeking to know the mind of God in our dilemmas.
How do you discover the will of God in your life? Do you flip a coin? Actually, that’s biblical, in a way; after all, even the disciples of Jesus drew lots to choose a new apostle to replace Judas after his betrayal and suicide. You can find plenty of examples in the pages of scripture, when people drew lots, believing that God would work in that random selection.
However, I think there’s a better way, involving hard thinking, earnest prayer and the earnest searching of the heart. I like what author Frederick Buechner suggests about discernment: that the way in which God leads involves the discovery of that place where your greatest delight comes to meet the world’s greatest need. That is not an easy answer. It means hard work. But, in the end, I believe that insight is a helpful clue to discerning the will of God.
I recently ran into a little poem by an anonymous author that shed some light on my own discernment challenges. I hope it’s helpful to you, the reader:
The will of God will never take you
Where the grace of God cannot keep you,
Where the arms of God cannot support you,
Where the riches of God cannot supply your needs,
Where the power of God cannot endow you.
The will of God will never take you
Where the Spirit of God cannot work through you,
Where the wisdom of God cannot teach you,
Where the army of God cannot protect you,
Where the hands of God cannot mold you.
The will of God will never take you
Where the love of God cannot enfold you,
Where the mercies of God cannot sustain you
Where the peace of God cannot calm your fears,
Where the authority of God cannot overrule for you.
The will of God can never take you
Where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears,
Where the Word of God cannot feed you,
Where the miracles of God cannot be done for you,
Where the omnipresence of God cannot find you.
