Guidance

[owl]

Read a new book Mam got from the Covenanter Bookshop, about guidance. There was a lot in it I didn't understand which will take a second reading to take in, but the argument as I understood it was something like this:

Everything that happens is according to God's will, even our mistakes and sins. There is no way a 'bad' decision will shift us into God's Plan B for our lives, even if facts come to light afterwards that would have made us choose differently had we known them at the time. The way to discern God's will is to pray and exercise our God-given wisdom, not to always be looking for signs and special verses in Scripture. All those hunches, weird coincidences and verses in your Bible reading are to be treated as data in decision-making, like the rest of your circumstances, and not as an overruling revelation.

All this is what I thought myself in a vague manner. Rushing around trying to find an infallible direction, a clue to Providence, is like consulting a pagan oracle. It's trying to short-circuit the decision process, to get rid of the responsibilty. There is a reason one has to go through it; spiritual growth. At the same time, it's a relief to know that one can't make a decision the will take one out of God's will.

Still, all that is not very relevant in finding a job when there simply are no suitable jobs.

Comments

[ladyelaine.livejournal.com]

Everything that happens is according to God's will, even our mistakes and sins. ... The way to discern God's will is to pray and exercise our God-given wisdom

If everything happens according to God's will, then why do you need to discern God's will? You could go through life blindfolded and ignorant and still be doing God's will.

[owl]

Because it's his will that you should disern it? ;)
Because it's better to do something seeing than blinded.

[ladyelaine.livejournal.com]

I agree that it's better to think about it than not. But saying that everything is God's will means that no one should be held accountable for their actions. If I'm murdered, well, that was God's will. If I murder someone else, likewise, that was God's will. In other words, it's comforting on first glance, but it doesn't work in practice.

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

Well, if you get murdered, it is God's will (like everything), but that doesn't excuse the murderer. Because there's God's will, but there's also the free will of the individual. (Complicated, I know.)

[ladyelaine.livejournal.com]

I see. So therefore, God punishes folks for doing his will. Nice guy, that.

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

Something to think about...

All the best for your job search!

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Sounds a lot like "my daughter the theologian" who is very hot on Grace and very laid-back about everything else. Basically, if you get God's grace, you are likely to act in a particular way, but you don't get it by acting in a particular way. She has been known to sum the Bible up as "Old Testament: peoiple are s***. New Testament: if you want a job done properly, do it yourself." And it's not so much that anything is God's plan as that since God is outside time, God is aware of everything as from the moment of creation (before which, of course, there couldn't be any moments).

[owl]

I agreed that God doesn't 'plan' the way we do, because he isn't subject to time--after all, He invented it! I've noticed that people in general are willing to believe God is beyond space, but not beyond time. University physics really helps with that pov :)

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

BTW, I've talked her into getting her own lj - she's psuedogothhippy

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Cursed with a dyslexic computer. That should be pseudogothhippy