God, what should I do? Please show me the way! I am so confused! Sound familiar? I think we have all said those words or something to their affect from time to time. We know deep down, no matter where we are in our walk, that if we chose God’s will, we would be doing the right thing and good would come of it.
Following the will of God is foundational to our faith. It is what identifies us as the children of the Father as children eagerly do the will of their parents. It is what reveals our Christianity because Jesus died so that we may be one family living as the children of the Father. When we are unsure of what to do and want God’s direction, we are reminded that at our very core, we know we are children of the Father and the deepest desires of our heart is to please Him. While those times of uncertainty may seem very difficult, they are beautiful reminders of what is truly important to our inner most beings…union with God. Hearing God requires a relationship with Him. The closer we are to Him, the easier it is to follow His will. The more distracted we are and attached to the world, the harder it is. Scripture illustrates this for us.
As we recall the story of the apostles fishing after the resurrection of Jesus, we remember that they were out all night and didn’t catch any fish. As morning approached they headed to shore. Now with the sun lighting their way they could see Jesus and He told them to put their nets back in the water. They could hear Him and they did what they were told. As a result, 153 fish entered the net. What looked like a waste of time in regards to fishing turned out to be very profitable.
In that story we often hear that it is because they followed God’s will, that they were successful. We can read stories about the difference between them not hearing God when it was dark and hearing Him when it was light. We know that sometimes the darkness comes from no relationship with God and being far from Him, while at other times the union is so strong that His presence cannot be felt so it seems dark just as it happened to Jesus on the cross. The light is different, however. We know the light can only come with prayer and relationship. All those reflections are true, but I think the fish teach us a great deal as well and they are often neglected.
On one occasion the apostles were on a boat with Jesus and He fell asleep during a storm. When He awoke, He calmed the storm and the apostles asked who Jesus was that even the wind and the waves OBEYED Him. Even the wind and waves gave their yes. If they could give their immediate yes, we could surmise that the fish gave their yes as well. All creatures are subject to Him. We very often say yes, but often it’s very slow. Slow, not because we don’t want to say yes, but because we want to make sure it’s God. Our hearts are in the right place.
The difference between the wind, waves, fish and us is that we have intelligence and with that, reason. That is a gift, but it must be handled with care. On a daily basis we have the revealed thoughts of others coming at us as well as our own thoughts. These thoughts manifest themselves in words and material goods. They show themselves through hearing words and reading them. We see the thoughts that became inventions that we now have in our possession, see others having or would like to have one day. Day in and day out, we are receiving thoughts or the fruit of someone else’s thoughts and we try to reason them all out. We try to discern.
While we can never be like the wind, waves or fish, they teach us what can happen when we tune out of the excess and focus on God alone. There are three practices we can follow that can help us accomplish this.
The first, of course, is prayer.
We must spend time in prayer. Without it, we cannot learn to recognize God’s voice. We must not just spend time talking to Him. We must remain quiet and listen as well.
The second way is reading scriptures.
It is the only way to understand the ways of God. While God is infinite and scripture is only a taste of who God is, without them, we would not even have the taste. While it is good to read the writings of other Christians and saints, we are reading their reflections based on scripture. We are getting a glimpse of their relationship. Their writings definitely help us grow, but they are no substitute for us going directly to the source for our relationship.
The third way is to be careful of what we expose ourselves to.
In the 50s and 60s, experiments were done on people in which they were repeatedly given an audio message thousands of times on a looped tape to alter their behavior. God did not alter their behavior. The repeated suggestion did. Now it seems that we have the television for that. We can easily fall into the trap of allowing someone’s thoughts to penetrate are thinking on a daily basis because we understandably want to be informed. We, however, don’t have to be exposed to that level of influence to see that we are swayed by what we allow in. Have you ever decided to buy a car of a certain color and then suddenly, that color car was all you saw? By that example, we can easily see how we can go down the wrong path because of a suggestion we continually focus on or are exposed to. How good this gift is when it is used to build a relationship with God. How bad it is when the enemy uses it to draw us away from Him. The more we expose ourselves to something that is not of God, the harder it is to hear Him. If you are repeatedly told that water is a threat to your health, you are going to have a hard time believing that water is life-giving. You will even have a hard time excepting it if God is telling you it’s life-giving because you won’t recognize Him. It is important to be mindful of what you open yourself up to. It is important to fill your mind with what is good so that you are a better able to stay open to hearing God. St. Paul said, “Fill your mind with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable. Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you.” We fill ourselves up with those positive, uplifting things because God is in them and they keep us open to Him. They are life-giving because all that is of God is life giving. He is not the source of negative talk that is the opposite of those St. Paul mentioned nor anything sinful. All those do is put up a barrier, making it difficult to hear God. When our relationship with God is constantly worked on, He becomes the filter by which we process all we hear and we are more aware when it doesn’t sound like Him. By paying attention to the things of the world with balance and ensuring that God is the filter by which we allow things to enter into our psyche, the world can say to go left, and will be able to hear when God says to go right.
In summary
We have the responsibility to build our relationship up with God and guard against things that make the relationship difficult to grow and, at the same time, difficult to hear and follow His will. We have a choice. Do we want to satisfy the deepest longing of our hearts or leave it empty? Do we want to be people who spend our time fishing unsuccessfully in the dark or as those who hear the word of God, act on it and find great joy and purpose because of it.
PRAYERFULLY REFLECT ON
Meditate on these scripture passages:
Matthew 8:23-27
John 21:1-13
Pray on those circumstances that you want more than anything to make the choice God knows to be good. What does that tell you about the deepest yearnings of your heart? Talk to Jesus about what you discover.
Are you spending time in prayer so as to build up your relationship with God? Are you talking to God and then allowing time to sit in the silence so that the depths of your soul can hear Him?
Are you spending time reading scripture? Are you reading it for knowledge or as a means to grow in your relationship with God? A good way to use scripture to grow in your relationship is to use it as a source of meditation.
Is there something that has a strong repeated influence on you that might be blocking you from hearing God? Can you bring a greater balance to the influence?
Do you try and focus on that which is positive and good?
Meditate on Phil 4:8