Does God guide?

 

	Scripture:   John 21:15-23   I have often prayed for your guidance,  Lord,  but have not always been ready to follow it when it comes. Sometimes you seem to call me to act against my own feelings:    -  to admit it when I've been wrong,    -  to speak out when I'd have preferred to be silent,    -  to give money I'd sooner spend on myself. And when I've urgently sought your help on the big decisions,  sometimes no clear answer seems to come. Are you treating me as I treat my young adults when they come to me for advice?   I listen,  explore the situation with them,  and then say,  "It's over to you  -  you are the one who must live with the consequences." So should I put aside any idea that I can look to you for direct guidance?   Perhaps you have other ways of dealing with me than treating me as a child or a robot. You have given me the life and words of Jesus for my example,  the precepts of scripture,  the lives of the saints and my own conscience.   If I blunder as I go,  take false paths,  choose second bests,  and sometimes wilfully do wrong,  you allow me to learn the hard way.   So you educate my conscience,  and the way is open for me to learn and grow. Looking back,  I now see that when I thought I was 'flying blind' you were with me    -  strengthening me against my worst judgments,    -  causing me to feel shame when I erred,    -  leading me to fresh insights and new beginnings. In the thick of daily living I may feel alone,  but I know I'm not.   Stay with me,  Lord.   How else will I find my way through the moral maze and not be lost? Amen. ©  Selwyn Dawson

 

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