Prayer, choices, dreams, and the silence of God

Had a lot of different conversations with people lately about God's will.  People want answers!  What am I supposed to do with ______?  Why didn't God step in and  ______?  I need to make a decision about this by ______?  What kind of job should I wait for?  And other kinds of questions like that.

And I've listened to/heard people share their thoughts on those questions and the quality of their answers are wide ranging.  

• Well, maybe God is just wanting you to have patience and learn something while you wait.
• You know, if it feels like the doors are all opening for you, that's probably God's doing.
• Have you prayed about it yet?  How much have you prayed?  What words are you using?
• Maybe this is something that God doesn't have an opinion about and it's good either way.
• No answer probably means you need steer clear of it and do something different.

The list could go on of all kinds of responses. Everyone has an opinion just like everyone has an eye socket or whatever the saying is. And some people's responses seem to make sense for them, but wouldn't make sense for someone else.  Some people's responses make no sense at all, just kinda made up.

It reminds me that I don't remember seeing a lot of really specific prayer requests in scripture after the New Covenant went into effect. Prayers for open doors and boldness to share the gospel, certainly! Prayers for other specific things, not so much. And almost nothing saying "how to know" it's an answer.

The closest a clear answer comes to being found after the New Covenant began would be something like Romans 12 where Paul says to offer yourself/your body as a living sacrifice, not stubbornly continuing in your old way of thinking but being transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And THEN you'll know God's will, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.  And before someone jumps off and says, "There's the formula!  That's how we can know!"  Remember the context of Romans 12:1-2.  It's not about whether someone should take a job or buy a car or do some big thing, etc.

The context is all of what's been said in Romans 1-11.  And then right after 12:1-2, Paul goes on with the same thought and talks about how people should think about themselves in the context of the other believers they as a group Jewish and non-Jewish Jesus believers were experiencing.

They were struggling to know how to deal with differences over those who wanted to continue following some of the Jewish customs and those who didn't - and they were judging each other and not being very nice to each other because of it.  

Paul's directive was to think about what Jesus did for you and let that shape how you see yourself and other people. Let God's amazing mercy that bowled you over cause you to give yourself as a sacrifice that's seen by how you serve others, think about them higher than you have been, etc.  Read Romans 12.

__________

There just isn't a lot in there about any of that.  We certainly can trust God's word and Spirt to guide us, even when there isn't much said about the things we have questions about.  And that's hard because we, once again, want some answers.

I think it's probably okay and good to say, "I don't know" or "We don't know".  Cause we don't know.  We can look back and say, "I can see that God _______ and then _______", but I don't always feel comfortable saying pat answers or super certain answers in those situations.  

After God showed up and talked to Job, he still didn't get an answer from God about "why?".  God showing up was all the answer he got.  Job was okay with that and didn't say, "Okay God, just doing a little recap here - the reason all this happened was what again?"

It makes me think about all the stories we don't have recorded in the Bible of what people's lives were like in the first century - the good and the bad.  We have the highlights, not all the details.  And most of those highlights don't give us an answer about some of those big questions in life, at all.

God's will for us is 100% that we believe what he's done for us in Jesus and for us to walk with him in trust and dependence.  It's kind of like an inheritance.  Instead of a list of answers to our questions, he says, "Here, have this: complete forgiveness of sin, me living in you through the Spirit, and we walk together."  And that's it.

__________

I don't think it's a bad idea to pray about anything and everything.  Paul actually encouraged it a lot and even said that praying about everything, thinking about the good things, and that kind of stuff - just doing that will answer a lot of our questions about life, big and small.

How?  I don't know for sure.  I kind of have the feeling that praying about things opens us up to seeing a much larger picture that eventually helps us let go of some of our smaller pictures, idols we're pursuing, and that kind of stuff.

When we hold our questions up next to what he's done and appears to be doing, after a while, we have our answer(s) because we see that what he's doing outshines all that stuff we're concerned about - it all begins to pale in comparison.  "In view of God's mercies..."

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There are things we will not know in this life.  

Like Job, we can know God is there/here with us and that there are many things outside of our understanding.  

Job didn't get an easy answer.  

He got blessed with a lot of things AFTER he lost a lot of things.  

He likely still wept over those lost, even with the new people and things he was blessed with. 

We will find times when we see a lot clearer.

We'll have times when we live in mystery and shadow, but not without hope.

If you're someone who has those big questions or a million small questions about/for God, I get it and that's a good place to be.

Be open to answers coming your way on timelines and from directions you might not imagine or have ever guessed.

He might answer somethings here in this life, but he might not.  

He might bring up new things that we've not asked for or about, like At. All.

There are times I've heard things that I'm convinced God has shared that I was not looking for that were answers to questions I'd not asked yet, but he knew I needed.

It's kind of like that scene in that Harry Potter movie where Harry drinks a "good luck potion" in hopes of being able to find a critical clue that would solve a mystery that would save the day.  He took the drink and then, instead of doing what everyone thought he might get/do, he decided to go on a walk - and they all thought he was crazy, but it ended up being the exact thing that was needed.

Be open.  

In the meanwhile, ask, tell, vent, share, rage, listen, weep, ramble, look, and more of that kind of stuff. 

Keep it up.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

You'll be fine.

Grace and peace.

14/25