As with each of his previous three sessions in his book Alone with The Lord, Gordon T. Smith ends his last session on experiencing God’s guidance with a spiritual practice: discernment.

For many Christians, including myself, discernment is often elusive.  How can we be sure of God’s will in a specific situation?

I’ve pointed to Smith’s wisdom in ordering the day in previous blogs, and here I see it again.  Throughout the day there has been a focus on listening to God and listening to ourselves, but Smith began with areas where we find more unquestionable assurance of God’s direction.  We may not always feel God’s love (Session 1), but the Bible repeats it to us again and again, and this is indeed what God wants us to feel and know more than anything else.  Similarly we usually have little question of the proper response to our sin: confession (Session 2), and God assures us of his forgiveness  and restoration almost as much as he assures us of his love.  Session 3 on the illuminating power of truth may be less familiar to some, but still it is one more block of time spent listening for the direction of God’s Spirit.  So, after three quarters of a day spent listening for God’s voice in various ways, it is more likely that we will be able to hear it in this last session as well.

“Peace” is what Smith specifically tells us to listen for in discernment, peace from God about the decision we are making.  If we look in our hearts and find hints of fear, anger, resentment, discouragement, or similar motivations, if we do not feel a peace with God and a peace from God about the decision, we should reconsider and reflect again. 

But while Smith tells us to listen for God’s peace, he also instructs us to test the peace we feel.  Specifically he points to the three tests of Jesus’ temptations in Matthew 4:1-11.  Smith rephrases the temptations in the three questions below (from page 36)

• Is there anything is this peace that arises from an inordinate desire for wealth or financial security?
• Is there anything in this peace that arises from an inordinate desire for power or influence?
• Is there anything in this peace that arises from an inordinate longing for recognition or affirmation?

Discerning God’s will includes a good look at our own desires and motivations.  If we can truly say that we are seeking God first and foremost, we can rest in God’s peace, and, perhaps, God’s will is not as elusive as it may seem.

The Grace to Experience Guidance for a Critical and Important Choice – this is the title for Gordon T. Smith’s fourth and final session in his book A Day Alone with the Lord.  Whether you come to the day with or without a pressing decision in your life, Smith says a “day alone with the Lord is always an opportunity to hear God’s call into the specific challenges and opportunities of your life and work.” (Page 33)

I really appreciate the direction Smith leads us here.  He speaks of “the grace to live in the world in a manner that consciously arises out of our prayers.” (Page 33)  It reminds me of Smith’s discussion of the “Footprints” prayer/poem at the Healthy Soul Conference this last weekend. “Footprints” tells the story of a man’s dream in which he views his life in conversation with God.  The man’s life is laid out like “footprints in the sand”.  Most of the time there are two sets of footprints representing the Lord walking alongside the man, but in the most difficult times of the man’s life there is only one set of footprints.  At first the man is upset because he thinks that God abandoned him at those times, but God comforts him by telling him that when there was only one set of footprints, God was carrying the man.

As touching as this poem/prayer is, Smith took exception to its theology.  He said that, in reality, God carries us all the times of our lives, not just in the difficult times.  We should always seek to be dependent on God.  It’s when we try to make it on our own that we sin.  At times people approach Christianity as if it is another skill to be mastered, something that will make us more capable or lead to our accomplishment.  But in reality, the path to maturity as a Christian lies in becoming more dependent on God -- looking to him, listening for his voice, waiting on him -- rather than moving forward in our own strength and accomplishment.  Jesus himself said, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19) 

Likewise, in a day of prayer, even when come with a critical choice on our hearts, our goal is not to come in with our agenda, but to leave with God’s agenda, to return to our lives “to live in the world in a manner that consciously arises out of our prayers.”