When I worked in a call centre for a local authority, I regularly spoke to customers about streetlights. If the one outside their house was not working, it made life very difficult. Steps or pathways they would normally take without too much thought would become suddenly terrifying and potentially dangerous when the sun went down but the light did not come on. As someone with an eye condition that restricts my sight on dull and dark days, I could empathise.
When it comes to making decisions in life, it can sometimes feel like approaching steps in the dark. We want to put our foot forward but there is a fear of what might or might not be there when we do. We pray for God to flick the light switch and show us what will happen in advance; but often he will ask us to take the step, in the darkness, and trust him for whatever comes next. Like those motion sensor lights that don’t have a switch and only come on as you approach them it can be very unnerving.
So how do we see God’s will in the dark?
The Sprit of wisdom and revelation
In Ephesians, Paul prays that God would give the church the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. 1:17). We may use that prayer for guidance but Paul’s original purpose was that the church in Ephesus would know God better. He wanted them to know the height, width, depth and breadth of God’s love for them. Our decision making should come from the knowledge that we are loved and that God is for us. He is not poised to punish or chastise us if we get it wrong. He is our loving Father, who wants the best for us. Good decision making starts from a place of being loved by ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father’ (Eph.1:17). Our choices should never be made from fear, shame or guilt.
We are reminded in Hebrews chapter one that God speaks to us through his Word. The Spirit of wisdom and revelation reveals more to us about God through that Word. The Bible will not give us ‘sat nav’ directions to our next stop but if we commit to searching it, we will find the leading and guidance we need, whatever we are facing.
A commitment to prayer
My ever-patient first pastor would regularly ask me how many people I had gone to for advice compared to how many times I had prayed about something. Over the years the scales have been tipped in favour of prayer and I have found that the bigger the decision, the fewer people I ask about it.
Wise counsel is always valuable but we should choose our counsellors wisely and sparingly, especially for the major decisions in life. We should let God’s Spirit be our counsellor and make him the first and main person we pose the big questions of life to.
Apart from the Lord’s Prayer, the scriptural prayer that I pray the most is from 2 Chronicles 20:12: ‘Lord I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are fixed on you.’ We can fall into a trap of frantic and anxious activity when we are in a quandary. In the story told in 2 Chronicles Jehoshaphat is surrounded by multitudes of people who want the destruction of the people of God. Jehoshaphat knows he cannot fight them, he knows his army is not strong enough but he also knows and relates back to God what he himself had done for his people in the past.
Jehoshaphat combined his knowledge of God’s doings in the past with a humble, honest prayer in a time of potential disaster. God did not need reminding of his own power, nor was he unaware of the problems Jehoshaphat faced. It was Jehoshaphat who needed the reminder of God’s ability to rescue and to acknowledge his own weakness.
If you don’t know what God did next, you must go and read 2 Chronicles 20!
As the hymn goes, take it to the Lord in prayer.
A measure of common sense
Our brains are amazing! Scientists tell us that this on average 3lb organ makes tens of thousands of decisions each day. Memories, thoughts and feelings come from the millions of neurons connecting at millions of points through synapses (gaps that neurons pass through) that travel at 300 miles an hour.
This is how God made us. We have the most powerful computer ever made in our heads, and God wants us to use it. We should always ask ourselves if we already know the right path. Returning to my ever-patient first pastor, he used to answer a lot of my many questions about guidance saying, ‘But you already know what to do!’ When I look back, most of my so-called indecision in the early days of my walk with God was me wanting to choose the path that was not right for me. My behaviour and attitude did not change straight away after I gave my life to Jesus. I had to learn (and am still learning) to be patient, pure, humble and to choose the narrow way. I have found that when the work of submission to God’s will and timing is done, it makes choosing so much easier.
I remember hearing a sermon about God’s will. The preacher said that some believe God’s will is like that straight line between the two columns of text on the pages of Scripture, with no twists and turns and only one correct choice at each point. Others, he said, believe that God’s will is found within those pages, but that we can move freely, making the choices we believe are within God’s will and that God will forgive and get us back on track if we get it wrong. The important message was that God’s will is in his Word and with prayer and patience, he will either use it as a lamp to our feet, shining a light on the steps, or he will use it to give us the courage to step out in the dark.
