Dear Friends,
In reading for our Spiritual Leadership class last week, the following
quote caught my attention, “We naively think that the more we grow as
Christians, the easier it will be to discern the will of God. But the opposite
is often the case. God treats the mature leader as a mature adult, leaving more
and more to his or her spiritual discernment and giving fewer bits of tangible
guidance than in earlier years. The resulting perplexity adds inevitably to a
leader’s pressure” (Spiritual Leadership, Oswald Sanders, p 147). Sanders words
surprised me as I had always assumed that the more mature you were as a
believer, the easier it would be to sense God’s purpose and direction for your
life.
The next day I was sitting with a friend who was struggling with
this same issue. The person was seeking guidance and direction for her life.
As we talked, we both agreed that it would be a lot easier if God
would send an angel down from heaven to drop a note in our lap with explicit
directions for the next stage of our life. But as of yet, I have not heard of
this happening to anyone. This being the case, then how do you know what your
next step might be in helping you discover God’s purpose and direction for your
life?
Well prayer would be the first and most obvious place to begin.
God does reveal direction for us through the important discipline of prayer.
But what do you do in the meantime if your prayer is yet answered? What
if, as Oswald Sanders writes, “God was leaving more and more to (our) spiritual
discernment and giving fewer bits of tangible guidance than in earlier years?”
As we talked, I asked my friend what her gifts were- both
spiritual and natural and what was her passion, that is, what she would do
even if she wasn’t paid for it. I believe that we can often find God’s purpose
for our life (that what we were created for) at the intersections of our
spiritual gifts and natural talents and our passion.
In addition, I suggested she take the valuable Meyers Briggs
Personality Inventory to assist her in discovering more about how she thinks,
feels and acts in normal everyday life. This is a very helpful test for anyone
to take, and our leadership has just completed a modified version of the Briggs
test, and for those of you who wish to take it, you can click on the link https://www.16personalities.com/
Spiritual gifts and talents combined with passion seem to me to be
a logical place to begin your search for your purpose in life. After all,
it wouldn’t make sense for God to give you certain gifts and talents and
a particular passion and a personality type and then direct you to a vocation
where none of these would be of any value.
The Psalmist provides further insight in the following
prayer: "O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. He leads
the humble in what is right, and teaches he humble his way” (Psalm
25:4-5).
And in closing, I leave you with the words of the late radio
pastor Dr. Bob Cook who used to say, “Have a good day and a godly one,
for what lasting value is a good one unless it is a godly one.”
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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