Guidance

I came upon the following steps regarding how to receive God’s guidance and thought them quite sound. My prayer is to remember and practice them!

How to Receive God's Guidance
by Norman Vincent Peale

Often we're in situations where we need guidance on a particular problem, or maybe we just need help getting through our everyday struggles. These simple steps will help.

1. Say, "Be still, and know that I am God," aloud three times.
This will make you aware of God’s presence.

2. Be humble.
Humility is necessary for spiritual wisdom. It is God's wisdom you want, not your own. Only with the spirit of the child, teachable and willing to learn, does guidance come. So, put everything in His hands.

3. Open your mind.
Let go your desires, your preconceived notions, your obsessions, your fixed opinions. These represent your wisdom, or lack of it, and what you want is God's wisdom. Your mind must be emptied of error before it can be filled with truth.

4. Ask God to fill your mind with the understanding and ideas you need.
Close your eyes and listen, really listen.

5. If you have a specific problem, write it on paper.
Then, actually holding it up, as though offering it to God, say, "Lord, I want only to do Your will. Here is my problem. Show me what to do and I will do exactly as I am shown."

6. Pray this prayer.
Dear Lord,
I rest my mind in Your mind. Let it be full of Your great thoughts. I want to live and think and act only as You would have me do. Fill my mind to overflowing with spiritual insights, with true wisdom. May I think as You think. Your guidance is now coming to me in this problem and will ultimately come in all problems. Help me to know that I can never go wrong doing right. Amen.

7. Commit this verse to memory:
"Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." (Psalm 73:24)

8. Remain humble, practice and believe.

Thanksgiving Day 2009

For the last 19 Thanksgiving Days, I have been humbled. That was not always the case.

Before joining 12 Step program in March, 1990, I was a devout atheist. When Thanksgiving came ‘round each year, I pretty much acknowledged and thanked myself for the life I had. There was no Higher Power in my life; I was the alpha and the omega.

Much has changed since coming to believe, and these days I know Who to thank for the life I have. Without Spirit, my life would not be what it is today - and every day. So these days, one of the most important things I am grateful for is joining Overeaters Anonymous, which started me on my spiritual awakening path. I am grateful for the love, knowledge, tools, experience, and support I have found along the way.

And, I give thanks that I am no longer alone, for I know that God is with me this Thanksgiving Day, and always. That is the greatest thing I am grateful for.

May my gratitude for coming to believe be expressed every day through my loving actions toward others, in service to the One Who blesses my life.