Guidance

Have you ever felt as if someone had turned the lights out on your life and gone home?

When you need guidance, you may feel this way. But you always have a guide with you. You always have the presence of God with you to show you the way out into the light again.

Just for the moment you are reading this sentence, think about a decision or choice you need to make. Does it seem overwhelming? Is it taking all your time and energy? Are you torn between what you really want to do and what may seem right for you to do? When you put your options on the scales of your consciousness, do they weigh out in an answer that you really are not comfortable with?

How Can We Always Know What is Right?

How can we know that what we choose for another person will be the very best for him or her? Can we find peace in making decisions, whether they are the seemingly insignificant ones of everyday living or the life-changing ones that come along only a few times in our lives?

Yes, there is a way. There is a way because we are in the presence of God at all times and in every place. God is with us as the understanding and insight we need to make good choices. What we need is to be with God. …

God has a plan for you and for your life. In making decisions, what you really want more than anything else is to do what is in harmony with God's plan. This is your most heartfelt desire whether you realize it consciously or not.

Your deepest desire as a child of God is to experience the presence of God in everything you do. Your wanting to make right decisions brings you ever closer to this realization.

Praying for Guidance

Identify the decision you need to make. Be as clear and as honest with yourself as you can. Make a list of all your options and alternatives. Make a mental list of the good consequences of each as well as the negative ones.

Close your eyes. Let yourself relax. Forget about your decision. Forget about your lists. Forget about your need to choose. Remember and think of God.

For one minute, this minute only, let yourself be completely in the presence of God. The presence of God is your peace and your light in the darkness. Be in the presence of God now—not with your problem but with your entire self.

If your problem should resurface in your thoughts, if you should feel yourself tensing up, stop. Stop again in the silence and think of God.

As you think God in the silence, let the feeling of the presence of God touch your soul. Feel it within you and around you. The presence of God is light, and when you realize that you live in the light of God, in the presence of God, you see your way clearly to greater expressions of understanding and love.

Now listen. Listen to God. Just speaking your mind in prayer is not enough. You need to listen. As you quiet your thoughts, as you quiet your inner voice that is always talking, you can listen, really listen, to what God is saying to you. …

The Answer Will Come

Will your answer come to you in just this one minute? Maybe. Maybe not. But by clearing yourself of any thought, of any feeling other than of God, you are clearing the way for the answer to come. And it will come to you. …

You may need to study and to check out the various possibilities that lie before you.

You may need to speak with a professional or two professionals. You may need to consult with the people whose lives will also be affected by your decision. Whatever it is that you need to do, do it, but do it after your time with God.

When answers seem vague and indistinguishable, rely on your intuition,

Your intuition and your conscience are two of your God-given faculties. Use them.

Let that still, small voice inside your heart and your head whisper to you the answers you seek in the silence.

Let Go and Let God

Have there been times when you made up your mind, made the best decision you could at that time, only to second-guess yourself and find yourself going through the process again and again and again?

If, after your prayer times, the answer still seems to elude you and you are still hesitant, let it go, Do not let yourself be bullied into making a hasty decision. Let your problem go. Put it into God's care, and wait for the answer to come to you.

God is always active, and if you will allow the presence of God to work in and through you and the situation you are facing, you will find that the answer will come. …

Follow through with the guidance you received when you were centered in God.

Have the heart and the courage of your convictions. Do what needs to be done. Simply praying for guidance and then not acting on the answers you receive will not get you where you want to go.

Friend, there is light for your way. There is light that shines from within you. When all is said and done, you can make right choices. You have the intelligence. You have the ability. You have all that you need because you have the mind of God, you have the heart of God. You have the peace of God, the love of God, the light of God, the wisdom of God with you and around you at all times.

Be sure—you can do all the things that you need to do.