Knowing God Study - Lesson 25 Ý
Copyright 2004-5 by William Meisheid

Chapter 20: Thou Our Guide

Today’s theme: God always has a plan for us..

Scriptural background: Psalm 25:9 "He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way."

Quotes for the week

"A blocked path also offers guidance." Mason Cooley, US aphorist. The Columbia World of Quotations, City Aphorisms, Fourth Selection, New York, 1987.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." Proverbs 29:18

"I so love the Spanish proverb "God says, 'Choose what you will and pay for it,'" which stresses that life holds no easy answers, that conscious choices are often costly ones. We must live with and pay for their consequences." Marsha Sinetar,  To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring. St. Martin's Press. 1996

Concern: That we will not grasp the importance of gospel holiness in our lives as Christians or see how our blessed assurance is tied to God, not us.

Concern: That we would know what to do so that we might do it.

"I asked the angel who talked with me, "What are these, my lord?" He answered, "Do you not know what these are?" "No, my lord," I replied. So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: `Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty. Zechariah 4:4-6

1   Looking at this scripture, how do we usually make our decisions?

2   What does this scripture say is the right way to make decisions?

Interacting with the text

Goal: To understand God’s plan for our life and come to accept it, which is an obvious point of contention within our modern, self-actualized social conditioning. It is a real and legitimate question; who owns our life, us or God? If God owns our life, to mirror Paul’s question in Romans 19:19-20: “You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"

1   Why do we have such a hard time figuring out what to do?

2   Why is this problem of indecision so chronic in our modern lives (almost like an ongoing illness)?

3   What two things do we depend on in order to believe that God will eventually guide us?

4   Does God explicitly say anywhere in the Scriptures that he will guide us? Give an example.

5   Why do our attempts at receiving guidance from usually God fail? Do you have any personal examples of this?

6   Packer argues for rational application of God's word as legitimate guidance. Do you agree? Why or why not? What do you think about his six common pitfalls? Explain how you agree or disagree with all of them?

7   Do you expect God's guidance to produce a trouble-free course? Packer says this is wrong. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

8   Why is Joel 22:22-26 so important to this discussion over guidance?

What To Do Next

Read Chapter Twenty-one: These Inward Trials and consider how you can have right doctrine yet go so wrong in your application that you destroy the very work you are trying to do.

Goal: To listen to God as he leads us along the path of righteousness and then act.

It is one thing to know what God has called you to do and quite another thing to actually do it. Many of us say if we only knew what God wanted we would do it. Would we, or is that a convenient excuse to avoid dealing with what we already know we need to be doing? I have some seminal advice: do what you know and when you run out of those challenges then tell me that you wish God would tell you what you are supposed to do.