Guidance

There’s an apocryphal story about a man who’s on the golf course, teed up overlooking a beautiful water shot. He’s debating whether to use his new ball, which might carry further or an old ball, which he won’t mind losing so much. As he’s thinking, a voice booms down from heaven, “Use the new ball.” “Thanks, God!” So, the man tees up the new ball, and as he’s just about to swing, the voice booms again, “Take a practice swing.” “Okay, God.” He takes a practice swing then steps up again. A third time the voice booms down, “On second thought, use the old ball!”

Don’t you wish God’s voice was that clear? It’s not always that clear, is it? Most of the time we really have to listen. Personally, I try to listen as I read and meditate on scripture. But I know God speaks to us in other ways as well.

In her book, “Soul Feast,” Marjorie Thompson makes the point that the very circumstances of our lives can be one of the ways God tries to communicate with us. She writes, “God opens some doors and closes others. A troubling relationship may invite us to attend to something we have not fully faced in ourselves. Through the wisdom of our bodies, God tells us to slow down or reorder our priorities. The happy coincidences and frustrating impasses of daily life are laden with messages… It is a good habit to ask, ‘What is God saying to me in this situation?’ Listening to our lives is a part of prayer.” 

My prayer today is that you and I would try to pay attention to our lives and to the circumstances surrounding us. In our prayer time, may we reflect on all that is going on in and around us, and may we ask for God’s presence and leading. 

Let us pray using Paul’s prayer for the Colossians found in chapter one of that letter: 

We pray, loving God, that we might be filled with the knowledge of your will, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that we might lead lives worthy of you, fully pleasing to you, as we bear fruit in every good work. We also ask that you might fill us with the strength that comes from your glorious power, preparing us to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to you, Father. For you have rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of your beloved Son. It is in his name we pray. Amen.