Guidance is defined as:

​-advice or information aimed at resolving a problem or difficulty, especially as given by someone in authority.

 

​-the directing of the motion or positioning of something

 

By definition guidance entails positioning something in a particular direction whether through advice or movement. As I think of our need to be guided by God, I see it as God positioning us in the “right” direction. Being that God is omnipotent and omnipresent, it makes him All Knowing so whatever He tells us to do, wherever He tells us to go, can never be wrong. A GPS can lead you down the wrong path. People can give you the wrong advice. Computers can have glitches. Software can fail. So, in essence although we may look in many places for guidance only God’s guidance is completely and consistently without flaw.

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After looking it up in over ten dictionaries it is interesting that guidance is not necessarily defined as “right” direction or “wrong” direction. Although, when most people think about the word guidance, they tend to imply that it has a positive connotation as when we think about a guide it is typically someone or something that you depend on to lead you down the right path. A tour guide, a guidance counselor, an employee guide manual. But we all know that tour guides can sometimes get lost, guidance counselors can sometimes enroll you in the wrong course and employee guides can sometimes contain the wrong information if they are not updated along with the company’s initiatives, policies and objectives. When looking at the word guide as it is attached to God it always signifies being led in the right direction, the right decision, it always implies explicitly and implicitly a positive view, a correct answer, a correct command.

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Psalm 121:3-5 (KJV) states:

3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

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The God’s Word Translation reads as such:

3 He will not let you fall. Your guardian will not fall asleep.

4 Indeed, the Guardian of Israel never rests or sleeps.

5 The Lord is your guardian. The Lord is the shade over your right hand.

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In essence, God as our guide will not allow us to fall. He is always awake. He does not tire. His advice is not going to depend on how fed up He is with us. His advice is not going to change, be it our good or bad days. Have you ever caught a friend at the wrong time and poured your heart out and the next morning they said, “Oh my gosh, I was half asleep, what happened now?” They cannot even remember the advice they gave you and all you could think was “Oh gosh, I did what they told me to do.” Funny, but we’ve all experienced it or maybe we were the ones giving advice in our sleep. With God, He will always give us the best advice. He won’t tell us to do the wrong thing when He’s frustrated with us. And He won’t tell us any ole’ thing just so we can stop bugging Him. He is patient and He will always give us an answer and direction with substance.

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Although we know God does not fail and cannot fail then why do we struggle not only to ask Him for guidance but most importantly to accept and trust His guidance? Well for one, God is going to tell us the truth whether it be something that we want to hear or don’t want to hear. And unlike advice given by friends, family, coworkers or teachers, when God gives us instruction, we know we best to act upon it although many of us are still hard-headed and stubborn and choose to do it our way regardless of the consequence involved.

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Why is it that we can continually trust and depend on people whose track records are not 100% but find it hard to trust God? No matter how many times we’ve fallen short or how many times He delivered just in time, we continue to go through the same whim of “I’m in trouble and I don’t know if God will come through.” Why do we continue to doubt whether He will truly be there for us or bring us through whatever we are facing?

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We trust people at the bank with our life’s savings although we’ve never seen them, don’t know their names, know nothing about their background and yet we can’t trust God? Although we cannot see Him, we can feel Him, we know Him whether personally or by means of upbringing or through another family member or friend. We know that He can do all things. We have seen Him do amazing things. Yet, we still need more proof during every obstacle we face that He can come through.

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In all honesty, I don’t think we truly know or even recognize what triggers our doubt and our fear that God will fail us. We can better analyze why we may not trust our siblings, our friends, our relatives, a co-worker, or a politician but it is hard for us to grasp why we have a hard time trusting God. Would you even know where to start if someone asked you what stops or hinders your faith? Or what increases your doubt? For many of us it may not even be a particular circumstance that occurred, it can be something in us that just wrestles with our ability to fall completely into God’s care.

 

Let’s begin with a brief exercise to enhance our awareness of why we may be struggling. Sometimes our blogs are not about providing an answer as much as it is about helping you to create self-awareness about the things that hinder and elevate your spiritual life therefore impacting your natural life.

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Answer these questions as an awareness exercise:

1)    Who do you believe God to be?

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2)    Do you truly believe that God can do all things?

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3)    What hinders your faith?

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4)    In the moments where your faith is increased and you trust God to come through what type of               circumstances are usually involved? Do you notice a difference in your faith and doubt                        depending on the type of circumstance faced or who it involves?

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5)    What characteristics can you identify in the people that you trust? How many of these                           characteristics that you see in these people can you also see in God?

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6)    What characteristics does God have that you would want in someone that you trust?

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7)    Has God ever failed you? 

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8)    Have you ever failed yourself?​​