HOW DO WE GET GOD'S GUIDANCE?
By Ernest O'Neill
HOW DO WE GET GOD'S GUIDANCE?
Ernest O'Neill
We're on a treadmill that just keeps turning and turning and turning. That's what we've said is the situation with most of us.
Does God guide our lives and our jobs and our relationships? Forget it! He's not in the picture at all except when we're in real trouble. Then we call Him in an emergency for some consultation. But on the whole, we tip our foreheads to Him and we get going, trying to make ourselves secure and of some importance in this world. Most of us live our life like that. Do you see how far it is from Him being king?
You see how far it is from Him being the king of your life. We don't need to pretend with each other. You know how you live your daily life. Most of it is lived by your common sense. But that's just an excuse we have. We really mean it's lived by our own wills. We do what we want to do and what we think we should do. If I ask you, "Does God want you to do that?" you'll look at me blankly and say, "I don't know. He hasn't said anything to me about it." And I say to you, "Have you asked Him?" You say, "Well, now and again I ask Him." On the whole, we live an unguided life that is driven by our needs and desires.
So the King is not king in our life. In fact, if I ask you what's king in your life, you'll probably say, "Necessity is king in my life. I haven't got the luxury of sitting around, letting somebody else be my king. Necessity -- my needs, and the things I have to do --otherwise they'll get me. It's the needs that dominate me. That's the king in my life."
That wasn't the way it was meant to be. It wasn't meant to be like that. That wasn't God's plan at all. His plan was that you and He would live it together. That you and He would do it together. You are different. You're different, it doesn't matter how close you feel to your loved one beside you. You're different. It doesn't matter how alike you might look to somebody else. You are very different. There's a life that the Creator wants you to live that is different from all the rest of us. He wants you to live it with Him and He wants you to talk it over with Him and He wants you to receive His guidance.
Don't get all funny about it and ask, "Oh, how do you get guidance from God, is it in a vision?" It's through your thoughts. God feeds His thoughts through your mind and through your spirit when you have an attitude to Him that treats Him as king. Now how do you do that? Well, you know if you really did love and respect your dad or your mom, we all differ. Some of us have had great respect for our dads, some of us for our moms, some of us for an uncle or an aunt or maybe even some for a schoolteacher, or minister.
Now, think of that. Think of it just with your mom or your dad. If you really think a lot of them, you know what happens every time you come to not only an important decision in your life but even to many of the ordinary things that you do. You immediately think, "Now what would my mom do here? I wonder what my dad would want me to do here? What would he do?" You just naturally think that. You don't go into all kinds of mystical experience and try to contact your dad or your mom. You just think, "What would they do?"
That's part of what it's like. That's part of the way God meant us to live. You and I would size things up, and we'd say, "I didn't come here by chance. There's more to this world than meets the eye. There is a God. He put me here. He put me here for a purpose. I'd better start being interested in what He's thinking." You start treating Him with respect. Then every time you are involved in something, you wonder, "What does He want me to do here? What does He want me to do in this job situation? I think I should change jobs but I wonder what He thinks? What does He think?"
That's the way God intends us to live. It's the same with marriage. Not, "I love this girl. She's really great. I am just going to marry her." No, you say, "Lord God, You know what the story is going to be 10 years down the way. You know what it's going to be like. What do You think? What do You think I should do?" It's the same with the things you say in the office through the week. The dirty joke goes out and the dirty joke is a big deal to you. You have a God that put you here, He loves you, and He is the one you're going to see at the end. So you say, "Lord, this joke doesn't feel too good to me, how do You want me to respond to this?" That's it. If you really love and respect somebody, you don't need special little prayers up to them or mystical experiences. You just have a desire to please them and you automatically think, "Now what would you do here?"
Complete Talk: Who Is Your King?