How do we know what God's word is for us? This is an age-old and incredibly meaningful question for us to ponder, one I thought about quite a bit this past summer. Why is it that we interpret His Word so differently?
My mom told me this evening about a wonderful sermon by Pastor Tim at Elim Lutheran Church in Petaluma, CA gave last Sunday that addresses this very question. Enjoy.
I'd also love to hear your thoughts on this question. Another way it could be phrased is how do we know when we're following God's will? How do we know when we're doing so individually? collectively?
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4 comments:
thank you for asking these questions. they are plaguing my mind as i write...
Just very briefly I think this is how, and this is a revelation I did not expect to get from a movie, least of all from a Jim Carrey one! :) But these words of Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty summed it up, God cannot change man's free will. But His will, will be done, when we submit to it...pretty powerful, no?
I liked the pastor's sermon for its central theme of how we can tell what God's will is by evaluating it against Jesus's life/words, except I guess I'd extend that more broadly to all the Manifestations/Prophets of God - and in particular, the Manifestation of God for the day you're living in. And how do you know who that is? Of course, through searching, questioning, investigating etc... But the existence of a standard is important, for otherwise everything would be completely relativistic, and there would be no way for us, collectively, to agree on anything.
Also, I think the idea of independently investigating and figuring out the "will of God" by yourself is necessary to the process - we should never take some other person's word for it blindly. Reason, intuition and wisdom all become key in this.
Finally, related to the above (and to what hp_ac, and the pastor, alluded to), I think prayer is essential. As long as we are able to attain a state where we admit that we, on our own, might not be able to understand God's will, but we ask for His guidance and pray for His will to be done - over time it will become clear what we need to do. Therefore, being able to understand God's will is a very dynamic process, and we will attain greater mastery over it over time, as we continue to learn, study and pray. So you don't wake up some day and decide, "Ok, from today I shall follow God's will". You acquire a keener understanding of that will over time, and through a lot of prayer and effort.
I like what A said about how God's will shall be done when we submit to it. Sometimes I believe that we can discern God's will by studying the teachings and striving to follow the examples of those timeless perfect exemplars like Buddha, Jesus Christ, Baha'u'llah... But sometimes it's not so clear. As Nikhil said, prayer seems fundamental to clarifying what is God's will over time. At least, I trust that this is true, even though I don't always really understand what prayer is or what it's effect will be.
All that said, check out my next post, which is a prayer I learned long ago from Pastor Time, one that I've shared before with 8&20, and which seems like the perfect follow-up to this discussion.
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