Knowing the Will of God in our situations & lives-Follow the Star?
The Wise men ( magi) followed the Star, Matthew 2:1-12. How do we know where /what God is leading us to?
J. I. Packer in his wonderful book, " Knowing God" has a good chapter on this subject, chapter 20, " Thou Our Guide".
Here is some of what he says.
Packer gives some general verses as Isaiah 58:11 which promise, " The LORD will guide you continually..." ( previous vs talks about letting the oppressed go free, sharing our bread with the hungry, covering the poor naked). Psalm 32:8 says , " I will counsel you with my eye upon you." Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us that " In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
The Holy Spirit is a guide to all Christians. Acts 15:28 " it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us.."
Christians say Packer go about it in the wrong way. To seek guidance from the Holy Spirit apart from the written Word is an error. From this " folly can grow." There is the Quaker lady who tells of the woman who each morning , "having consecrated the day to the Lord as soon she woke, ' would then ask Him whether she was to get up or not'..."
This shows a " failure to grasp that the fundamental modes whereby our rational Creator guides His rational creatures is by rational understanding and application of His written word." ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE ATTUNED THEMSELVES TO IT, SO THAT THEIR BASIC ATTITUDES ARE RIGHT ARE LIKELY TO BE ABLE TO RECOGNIZE VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE WHEN IT COMES.
Some pitfalls are:
1. Unwillingness to think. Deut. 32:29
2. Unwillingness to think ahead.
3, Unwillingness to take advice. Proverbs 12:15
4. Unwillingness to suspect oneself. Psalm 139:23 f.
5. Unwillingness to discount personal magnetism. I Thess. 5:21
6. Unwillingness to wait.
No one knows God's plan for his whole life. Elisabeth Eliot whose husband was martyred as a missionary says, " I simply had to bow in the knowledge that God was his own interpreter...We must allow God to do what He wants to do."
Remember Deut. 32:27, " the everlasting arms are beneath us..."
J. I. Packer in his wonderful book, " Knowing God" has a good chapter on this subject, chapter 20, " Thou Our Guide".
Here is some of what he says.
Packer gives some general verses as Isaiah 58:11 which promise, " The LORD will guide you continually..." ( previous vs talks about letting the oppressed go free, sharing our bread with the hungry, covering the poor naked). Psalm 32:8 says , " I will counsel you with my eye upon you." Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us that " In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
The Holy Spirit is a guide to all Christians. Acts 15:28 " it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us.."
Christians say Packer go about it in the wrong way. To seek guidance from the Holy Spirit apart from the written Word is an error. From this " folly can grow." There is the Quaker lady who tells of the woman who each morning , "having consecrated the day to the Lord as soon she woke, ' would then ask Him whether she was to get up or not'..."
This shows a " failure to grasp that the fundamental modes whereby our rational Creator guides His rational creatures is by rational understanding and application of His written word." ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE ATTUNED THEMSELVES TO IT, SO THAT THEIR BASIC ATTITUDES ARE RIGHT ARE LIKELY TO BE ABLE TO RECOGNIZE VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE WHEN IT COMES.
Some pitfalls are:
1. Unwillingness to think. Deut. 32:29
2. Unwillingness to think ahead.
3, Unwillingness to take advice. Proverbs 12:15
4. Unwillingness to suspect oneself. Psalm 139:23 f.
5. Unwillingness to discount personal magnetism. I Thess. 5:21
6. Unwillingness to wait.
No one knows God's plan for his whole life. Elisabeth Eliot whose husband was martyred as a missionary says, " I simply had to bow in the knowledge that God was his own interpreter...We must allow God to do what He wants to do."
Remember Deut. 32:27, " the everlasting arms are beneath us..."
Comments
Post a Comment