How God guides us

This Sunday I'll be preaching on "Our plans and God's will" from Ruth chapter 3. In my preparation, I came across a classic text from J.I. Packer, who mentions five ways God guides us in decision-making, and what we must be willing to do to know God's will. I won't be able to cover all of these on Sunday, so I hope you are encouraged to read them here...

"If we want God to guide us, our attitude needs to be right. Here are some guidelines as to how we can play our part in arriving at right decisions:

First, we must be willing to think. It is false piety, super-supernaturalism of an unhealthy pernicious sort that demands inward impressions with no rational base, and declines to heed the constant biblical summons to consider. God made us thinking beings, and he guides our minds as we think things out in his presence.

Second, we must be willing to think ahead and weigh the long-term consequences of alternative courses of action. Often we can only see what is wise and right, and what is foolish and wrong, as we dwell on the long-term issues.

Third, we must be willing to take advice. It is a sign of conceit and immaturity to dispense with taking advice in major decisions. There are always people who know the Bible, human nature, and our own gifts and limitations better than we do, and even if we cannot finally accept their advice, nothing but good will come to us from carefully weighing what they say.

Fourth, we must be willing to be ruthlessly honest with ourselves. We must suspect ourselves: ask ourselves why we feel a particular course of action will be right and make ourselves give reasons.

Fifth, we must be willing to wait. "Wait on the Lord" is a constant refrain in the Psalms and it is a necessary word, for the Lord often keeps us waiting. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God."

James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986, Page 13.

More than we asked for

Three of the four gospels give us the account of Jesus meeting Jairus and an unnamed woman suffering from a mysterious bleeding disease (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; and Luke 8:40-56). Jairus is a synagogue ruler with a 12 year old daughter who is very sick and near death. He comes to Jesus with one request: "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." (Mark 5:23) Time is of the essence. Jesus is going to have to act quickly if Jairus is going to receive the one thing he wants--sparing his daughter from death, and himself from the grief and fear of losing his precious child.


While Jesus is on the way to help the little girl he is thronged by large crowds of people. In this chaotic mass of humanity is a woman who also has one desire, though she feels she can get it from Jesus without actually asking for it. While Jairus has been enjoying the life of his daughter for the last 12 years, this woman has been in misery. She has gone to doctor after doctor, spending all she had to find healing for persistent bleeding. In that Jewish culture her problem was more than physical. Bleeding (especially if it had to do with her regular cycle as a woman) made her ceremonially "unclean" and unable to participate with the community in worship and fellowship. Her uncleanness would make others ceremonially unclean if she touched them. 12 years of having people avoid you could not have been easy. If she remained silent about her condition and interacted with others, she risked their anger if they found out afterwards ("Now you've made ME unclean! Why didn't you stay away from me!?"). 12 years of this must have left quite the emotional and psychological wound. Yet, all she wants from Jesus is an anonymous physical healing. "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed," she said to herself (Mark 5:28).


As the woman pushes through the crowd (creating the potential for an angry mob if they discover who she is), she gets what she wants. She touches the edge of Jesus' clothes and is instantly healed. "She felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering." (Mark 5:29) Jesus realizes instantly that healing power has gone out from him, but instead of hurrying on to deal with a dying girl, he stops and insists that the woman make herself known. Jesus doesn't do this to embarrass her. He wants to give her more than she asked for because Jesus knows she needs more than she asked for. Yes, she has her physical healing, but her emotional wounds are still bleeding. Jesus has her testify to the crowd in his presence, and then provides what is still lacking: "Go in peace and be free from your suffering." She only asked for physical healing, but Jesus gives her more than that.


All this delay with the woman proves costly to Jairus. Word comes that his little girl has now died. If only Jesus had not wasted time Jairus could have had the one thing he asked for. Yet Jesus is now going to give Jairus more than he asked for, not less. Jesus tells Jairus, "Don't be afraid; just believe." Jesus goes to see the now dead 12 year old, and, in the presence of Jairus and Jairus' wife, Jesus miraculously raises her from the dead. All Jairus had asked for was physical healing to avoid the fear of death. Instead, Jesus takes Jairus beyond death and back again to life. A physical healing would have been a temporary respite from fear of death. Jairus will have to face that fear in the future with the impending death of his spouse, a family member, a friend, or even his own death. Jairus is given a reason for faith in Jesus that overcomes death. “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) Jairus could now answer, "Yes!" to this question.


It makes me wonder...I ask God for many things in my prayers. When I don't get what I want could it be that the Lord is in the process of giving me MORE than I asked for? Could it be that I don't really know what I really need? That God's love for me refuses to settle for less, and goes deeper to address my ultimate fears, wounds, and needs?


"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Philippians 4:6) However, prepare yourself to get more than you ask for from the God who loves us and knows us better than we know ourselves. "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Biblical Repentance

I regularly tell my congregation that we are "forgiven sinners" to remind us that we are in Jesus' Church by grace, not by self-righteous works. Everyone is a "lost sinner" at some point, but we become forgiven sinners when we give up trying to earn salvation, and by faith receive Jesus' righteousness for our unrighteousness.

However, that phrase is not meant to make us complacent about our sin. We must avoid the wrong motive that says, "Let's sin so that grace may abound--God will simply forgive me of anything, so it doesn't matter what I do!" So we, as forgiven sinners, must still feel the weight of our sin, confess it, and repent (turn away from it). And we must do this regularly, not as a matter of earning God's favor (I didn't earn it in the first place, and I can't earn it later on), but as a matter of gratitude and love, in response to God's undeserved and faithful love to us.

So how do I recognize when I am repenting in the truest Biblical sense? I came across this thoughtful list by Jared Wilson at The Gospel Coalition website:

12 SIGNS OF GENUINE REPENTANCE

1. We name our sin as sin and do not spin it or excuse it, and further, we demonstrate “godly sorrow,” which is to say, a grief chiefly about the sin itself, not just a grief about being caught or having to deal with the consequences of sin.

2. We actually confessed before we were caught or the circumstantial consequences of our sin caught up with us.

3. If found out, we confess immediately or very soon after and “come clean,” rather than having to have the full truth pulled from us. Real repentance is typically accompanied by transparency.

4. We have a willingness and eagerness to make amends. We will do whatever it takes to make things right and to demonstrate we have changed.

5. We are patient with those we’ve hurt or victimized, spending as much time as is required listening to them without jumping to defend ourselves.

6. We are patient with those we’ve hurt or victimized as they process their hurt, and we don’t pressure them or “guilt” them into forgiving us.

7. We are willing to confess our sin even in the face of serious consequences (including undergoing church discipline, having to go to jail, or having a spouse leave us).

8. We may grieve the consequences of our sin but we do not bristle under them or resent them. We understand that sometimes our sin causes great damage to others that is not healed in the short term (or perhaps ever).

9. If our sin involves addiction or a pattern of behavior, we do not neglect to seek help with a counselor, a solid twelve-step program, or even a rehabilitation center.

10. We don’t resent accountability, pastoral rebuke, or church discipline.

11. We seek our comfort in the grace of God in Jesus Christ, not simply in being free of the consequences of our sin.

12. We are humble and teachable.

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

– 2 Corinthians 7:9-11