Here's Hope for the Guidance I Need

Sunday's Message at Northcliffe

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Before we look at a fourth cause of concern, let’s take a moment for a quick look at what we have learned so far.

* WEEK ONE, we looked at the first cause of concern in our lives -- worry. God's help for worry is 23:1: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

To say the Lord is my shepherd means …

1. I believe God will take care of me. I can win over worry in my life when I am trusting God to take care of me.

2. I don’t have to worry about anything because God’s got it. Trusting God doesn’t mean worry never comes to my life – but it does mean worry doesn’t stay in my life. Whenever I start to worry I have two options: I can panic or I can pray. If something is big enough to worry about, it is big enough to pray about. Worry doesn’t change anything, but prayer does. Prayer puts us in touch with the One who can change things.

3. I can trust God to meet my needs today and tomorrow. We are to look to God to meet our needs one day at a time. If my shepherd can take care of my needs today -- He can do the same tomorrow.

* WEEK TWO, we looked at a second cause of concern in our lives -- stress. God's help for stress is 23:2: He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters.

1. Embrace God’s plan for work and rest. In the Bible, God commands us to work -- but He also commands us to relax. Why? Because our body needs to rest; our emotions need to recharge; and our spirit needs time to refocus on God. When I spend time with God, I refocus my life on the bigness of my God, instead of the bigness of my problems. Time with God brings things back into right perspective.

2. Enjoy what I have. One reason why some people work so much and have adopted such a non-stop lifestyle is because they have bought into society’s popular myth that having more things will make me a happier person. Unfortunately, what actually happens is instead of us getting more things, more things get us. The way we win over the desire to acquire more is by being grateful to God for what we have. The Bible calls this "contentment."

3. Exchange my pressures for God’s peace. Praying doesn’t mean problems will be any less perplexing, but it does mean I know I can go to God with my pressures and problems and can count on Him to see me through --which results in giving me peace.

* WEEK THREE, we looked at a third cause of concern in our lives -- hidden hurts. God's help for hidden hurts is 23:3a He restores my soul.

1. I need to let God remove my guilt. Nothing can bring restlessness to our life like unresolved guilt. If we don’t deal with guilt, guilt will continue to deal with us. A friend or a counselor can help us recognize our guilt but it is only God who has the power to remove our guilt. The devil doesn’t want us enjoy the freedom of God’s forgiveness and wants us to stay imprisoned to feelings of guilt. But the truth is, forgiveness is never based on how bad we have been – it is based on how good God is!

2. I need to let God relieve my grief. If you are grieving about something today I want you to know that God knows what you are going through; God cares about your hurt; and God wants to heal your hurt. God knows your feelings of sorrow, loss, and loneliness and wants to restore your soul.

3. I need to let God replace my grudges. Because life isn’t fair, people will hurt you – sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. Either way, it still hurts. How you handle resentments in life will determine whether you will be a bitter person or a better person. We always have two options for how we handle resentment.

Option #1 - Hold on to the hurt. The reality is holding on to a hurt, hurts you the most.

Option #2 - Give my grudges to God. It’s not easy to allow God to help me replace my grudges with forgiveness. But when I allow Him to help me clean out my heart of all that is bitter and resentful ... that will restore my soul.

* TODAY we are going to look at God’s solution to another cause of concern in our lives -- decision making. God's help for decision making is 23:3b He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Psalm 23:3 says in the New Living Translation: He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

Life is a series of decisions and choices, isn’t it? Successful living is basically a matter of making right decisions. When we make foolish decisions we live with the consequences of those choices. So in one sense, we make our decisions and then our decisions make us. The solution for the stress of indecision in my life is to let God guide me. God says, "I will guide you throughout your life if you will look to Me and trust Me." It’s good news to know that God can guide me, but HOW do I allow God to guide my decisions? Let’s look at four things the Bible tells us about letting God guide our lives.

* The Bible says in James 4:13-15: Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow... Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that."

Fact #1 - Life is complicated. Verse 13 say we have decisions we must make about the when, where, what, and how longs of life. Sometimes, life can be complicated.

Fact #2 - Life is uncertain. James says in verse 14, "You don’t even know what will happen tomorrow." How can we make right decisions about the future when we don’t even know what will happen tomorrow? That is why James tells us the wise thing to do is to make my decisions with God as my guide. God is uninitiated by the complexity of our lives. God can see your future just as easily as He can see your present. And therefore, it only makes good sense that I should let God be my guide. Since that is true, why do we sometimes still make wrong decisions.

Reason #1 - Sometimes we don’t take the time to get God’s guidance. Sometimes we look at a decision; examine it; explore the options; think through the pros and cons; check out the pluses and minuses, and then, make our decision. But something was missing in that decision- making process. What did we skip? We skipped looking to God! When we leave God out of our decision-making process, we open the door for making wrong decisions. We need to take the time to get God’s guidance.

Reason #2 - Sometimes we really don’t want guidance. Whether we say it out loud or not, our thought is, "God, this is a no-brainer. I can handle this decision. I’ll look to you if I have a situation that I feel requires Divine assistance." There are some decisions that can seem obvious -- but that doesn’t mean it is the right decision. We have all made decisions that at the time seemed right -- but later turned out to be wrong. So the first step to allowing God to guide me is to acknowledge I need God’s guidance.

James 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all... After I have acknowledged my need for God’s guidance, I need to ask Him for wisdom. God is not only willing to give you wisdom for your decisions -- God is waiting to give you His wisdom. Because He loves you, He wants to guide you in the right paths. God waits to give you the wisdom you need for whatever you are facing and the only way you will miss it, is if you don’t ask for it.

3. I need to listen for God’s response. Jesus said this about prayer in Matthew 7:7: "Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." There are four general ways God does speak to us today.

(1) God speaks to us through the Bible. A primary way God speaks to us is from His Words found in the Bible. The Bible is as reliable as the north star in guiding our lives. It talks about every avenue of life – from money to marriage – and provides clear do’s and don’t for helpful guidance. When we need to make a decision, one way God will speak to us and give us guidance is through His Word.

(2) God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. How does the Holy Spirit speak to us? He often speaks to us through inner impressions. When you are praying, if there is an inner prompting of peace, that is usually God saying "yes" about something. When you are praying, if there is an inner prompting of restlessness, that is often God saying "no" about something. But we must be very careful of what we think we are hearing God say. Sometimes, our emotions want a "yes" answer and that is what we are going to hear, no matter what God says. That’s why we need to test what we hear. Ask, "Does the answer contradict what God has said in his Word because God’s will never contradict God’s Word." Or ask a mature believer to confirm that this is God’s answer. Whether it is praying about making a major purchase or how to deal with a difficult person, listen for that still, small voice to confirm the decision you need to make.

(3) God speaks to us through other people. God can speak through a friend, a parent, a co-worker, and believe it or not, He can even speak to us through a husband or wife! Sometimes, God answers our prayers for direction through other people.

(4) God speaks to us through circumstances. God will use different circumstances in life to speak to us. A believer should always be looking for the handprints of God in the circumstances of our life for it is one way that God will guide us. Even though God is speaking, the question is, "Are we listening?"

Remember, God can see what we cannot see and He knows how to guide us in the right way. He can see our future just as easily as He can see our present. But what do you do when your circumstances don't make sense or the waiting seems too long? The Bible says in Proverbs 3:5,6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Indecision does not have to be one of life’s seven causes of concern in our lives if we will look to and trust in God to be our guide.