Discernment of God's Will

Discernment:  Discernment involves knowing when we are in sync or out of sync  with God’s will.   In  Ezra 6: 7-8, 12, 14-20, we read about how the Jews, having returned to Jerusalem following their exile in Babylon, rebuilt the Temple at God’s command and through the cooperation of the pagan king Cyrus and Darius, the encouragement of the prophets and financial help of the Persian empire.   All worked together to bring about the will of God for the good of the Chosen People, the People of God.  The Jews needed to recognize that God used even their pagan neighbors and those who imposed exile upon them , those whom they perceived as their enemies, to communicate His will and bring about His plans for their salvation.   In our day, we, too, need to be open to everyone and everything as an instrument in God’s hand to reveal what He is asking of us. This was drove home to me this morning. Five minutes into my hour of prayer, the fire alarm blared through the building. All were escorted to one “safe” place.  Ten minutes later, thinking all was clear, I returned to chapel, only to be called back to the “safe” place for another 30 minutes.  My hour of prayer was, to say the least, disrupted and basically close to its conclusion. I am boiling inside when, all of a sudden, the Lord says to me in the quiet of my heart:  “My will for you this morning is to be respectful of procedures put in place to keep the residents of this facility safe and to let go of idolatrizing your scheduled routine.” 

Be attentive today to how God communicates His will to you, through whom and through what circumstances of your life.  We may be clinging to our will and not seeking God’s will.  A clue might be how strongly you react to something or someone. Behind that reaction, if you probe deeply enough, you might find that which you, too, need to let go of in submission to God’s holy will!