“The Taste of Fear” titles this book’s prologue. When have you tasted fear as you considered God’s guidance?
Some Christians see God’s guidance as primarily a personal but partially hidden road map, where if you make a wrong turn, nothing in your life will be quite as good as it might have been (see prologue pp. ). What do you know of God’s character that might soften that fear?
Read the warning that Agabus gave to Paul in Acts 21:10–11. If you had been one of Paul’s advisors, what factors would you want Paul to consider as he decided how to respond to the words that Agabus said came from the Holy Spirit?
Look again through the section of text subtitled “Covenant Context.” If God’s guidance is part of his covenant care for you, what all would you expect that guidance to include?
Slowly read aloud Psalm 23 pausing after each phrase to savor the image. Thank God for what you see of him and of yourself there.
Under the subhead “Theological Framework,” the authors speak of four theological principles at work in this psalm: God as Trinity, God’s covenant care of his people, God’s salvation of his people, and practical aspects of real-life shepherding. Read Psalm 23 again and pick out several examples of each category. Which of the categories speaks most strongly to you at this phase of your life? Why?
Phillip Keller describes occasions when one of his sheep would fall over onto its back, then lie there, feet helplessly kicking in the air—until he came and set it upright again (pp. ). It is this image that Keller uses to describe what God does when “he restores my soul.” When and how do you experience a similar restoration from God?
Psalm 23 says, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” What does this statement convey to you about how and why God will guide you? Give several examples of what that guidance would look like or not look like.
Read again the final paragraph of the chapter. Do you find these statements worrisome or encouraging, or both. Why?
Pray, expressing to God your response to his shepherdlike guidance.
Chapter 2: Some Tangled Tales
Thoughtfully read the quotations from John Henry Newman and from Psalm 23 that open this chapter. What do you find here that draws you to desire God’s guidance?
“God’s holiness is his righteousness in intention, and his righteousness is his holiness in action” (p. ). Consider the meaning of this statement by reviewing the first two paragraphs under “The Nature of Righteousness.” Then create several endings to a sentence that begins, “Because God is righteous. . . .”
“Righteousness is love with wisdom; love is righteousness with good will.” . . . “The decisions we make should always have in view the twin goals of maximum service to others and maximum pleasing of God” (pp. ). Bring to mind one decision (large or small) that you need to make in the near future. What direction do you think these principles of righteousness would turn that decision?
Read through the two dozen quotations of Scripture on pages and find one that is particularly encouraging or challenging to you. What would it mean for you to seriously take this passage to heart? (Consider spiritual, emotional, practical impact.)
Review the three paragraphs under “The shape of guidance” (pp. ). What steps could you take to weigh with discernment any guidance you think that you are receiving from God?
In the section titled “Signs and Certainty” (pp. ), the authors give six reasons to support the section’s final two sentences. To what extent do you agree or disagree. Why?
The section titled “Guided Endurance” (pp. ) asserts that God-guided people often suffer that their lives are not necessarily easy, and that hardship is not a reliable indicator that they are on the wrong path. Who have you known or read of whose apparently God-guided life included significant suffering?
Read 1 Kings 22:1–28 and Jeremiah 19:15–20:8. Do the biblical accounts of Micaiah and Jeremiah encourage or frighten you? Why?
As you reflect on various turning points in your own life, as J. I. Packer does on pages , recall at least one point where hindsight reveals that God’s guidance was at work. Did subsequent events after that turning point bring you ease or pain, or both? What were the long-term spiritual results?
Pray now for someone whose life is now difficult partly because he or she is following God’s guidance.
Chapter 3: Your Good Health
What are some ways that you evaluate spiritual health in yourself ?
Do you agree that a periodic spiritual checkup is important? Why, or why not?
Principle One: Health for the soul is the fruit of holiness in the heart (pp. ). When we ask God to “unite my heart to fear your name” (Ps. 86:11), what are we asking God to do?
Principle Two: Holiness of life is the fruit of habits in the heart (pp. ). Focus again on the ninefold fruit of the Spirit as described on pages . How and why have you appreciated one of these “habits of the heart” in another person?
Which of these nine habits of the heart do you hope that God will develop more fully in your own heart? How can you begin to move toward better spiritual health in that area?
Principle Three: Habits of living are the fruit of desires of the heart (pp. ). According to this section of the chapter, habits grow out of desires of the heart (pp. ). Bring to mind two of your own habits: one good habit and another not so good. What desires led you to each habit?
As you read pages what do you find here that you would like to cultivate as a heart desire? What steps can you take to nurture that desire and its resulting habits?
8. Principle Four: Holiness of life leads to discernment in the heart (pp. ). If we are to discern God’s will, we must cultivate: (1) holiness of heart and life, (2) a mind seeking deeper and fuller renewal from God, and (3) the willingness to think hard in exploring and comparing possible courses of action. “Subtract any or all of the first three, and the fourth [discerning God’s will] will suffer” (p. ). To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? How does it contribute to your understanding of God’s guidance?
If you were to work with a spiritual director for a time of “spiritual midwifery” (p. ), what subject would you most likely concentrate on? Why?
Slowly read aloud Romans 12:1–2 below.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Pray now, in writing, your response to God.
Chapter 4: Guided by the Word of God
Give a brief summary (in writing, in speaking, or in thinking) of your present practice of using Scripture. Consider frequency of reading, motive, amount and method of study, ways Scripture does or does not touch your life after you have closed the book, your sense of being guided by Scripture, relevance or irrelevance of what you find there, your own consistency of approach to Scripture, and how you feel about the Bible and its contents.
“The human being has in the past been defined as a tool-making animal. We here are defining ourselves, biblically we believe, as discerning, direction setting, and decision making creatures of God, and seeking to understand ourselves and our lives, first to last, in these terms” (p. ). What differences do you see in the two definitions of what it means to be human? What does the second definition suggest about our potential relationship with God?
Under the section, “Guided by God’s Commands” we read, “As our Creator and as our Redeemer [God] is entitled to say to us, ‘Now this is what you must and must not do’” (p. ). This statement might trigger a number of responses: thanks, anger, frustration, security, stubbornness, humility, confidence, confusion, or some other response. Select one or two that best fit your current response. Explain.
John wrote, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Meditate in silence on this statement of God’s love and yours. Do not neglect to consider those areas of command that have at times felt troublesome to you.
After several moments of mediation, pray your response to God. As you consider how best to pray your response, select one or more areas of ACTS praying: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.
“God is gracious and good—he meets people where they are, and often showers beginner Christians with insights for their personal guidance as they take their first hesitant steps in forming the habit of daily Bible reading” (p. ). How is your “habit of daily Bible reading” progressing? Create a written “note to self” about any adjustments that you need to make.
Reread the paragraph beginning, “Freedom exists when not only have we been freed from whatever oppressed us, but are also now enjoying the state of dignity, happiness, fulfillment, and contentment that we were freed for. Freedom is thus two-sided” (p. ). Do you think you would have more freedom with or without God’s law? Explain? (Notice particularly the illustration of a boat’s anchor.)
When and how is God’s law an anchor for you?
The second commandment given in Exodus 20 says, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image.” The authors of this book suggest that “all who begin, ‘My idea of God is . . .’ or ‘I prefer to think of God as . . .’ are ordinarily breaking the second commandment already, before they finish their sentence” (p. ). Suppose in conversation with a close friend, you hear this kind of statement. If you are guided by God’s mind, how might you respond?
Near the end of the chapter (p. ) the authors warn that following God’s guidance sometimes has a “double effect, or unintended and undesired consequences.” In other words, in some situations, even our best effort to follow all that we know of God’s commands, his Book, his law, and his mind, will cause pain and hardship—because there is no good solution to the problem. Here we must decide for something that brings about less evil than the alternatives. Bring to mind a present or past dilemma of this sort from your own experience. How does being guided by the Word of God encourage you in this setting?
Read slowly aloud this patterned outline of what the Bible says about itself. Pause after each line to think and pray.
All Scripture is
B R E A T H E D O U T
by God
and profitable
for teaching,
for reproof,
for correction,
and for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be competent,
equipped for every good work.
Chapter 5: The Way of Wisdom
1. When and how have you benefited from someone else’s wisdom?
2. What events of your life has God used to make you more wise?
3. When considering the centrality of wisdom, the authors observe that the core responsibility of Christian life is to
love and serve God and others with imagination and devotion, with a sense of privilege and a spirit of self-giving, with a self-forgetful humility and a joyful awareness of self-fulfillment. To grow in wisdom . . . is simply to realize . . . that this is how Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Lord, and our life, wants to express himself in the new renewed personhood that he is developing within us (p. ).
Select one phrase of this definition of a Christian life that is guided by wisdom. How can you visualize that phrase lived out in your own life?
After a time of discussion or reflection, reread aloud the last sentence of the quote.
4. Reread the paragraph on page which lists seven topics of biblical wisdom. Select one of these that you would like to experience more deeply and reread the section on pages 122–31 that speaks to that particular area. How can you use the resources found in those paragraphs to better develop the nature of wisdom in your life?
5. “One mark of a wise person . . . is that one is willing to accept instruction and correction and to learn to know things better than one does at the moment” (p. ). How have you seen this lived out in a person that you care about? What is one situation where you would like to better live it out yourself ?
6. The apostle Paul says in Philippians 2 that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” How might an increased appreciation for this truth lead you to better work, better wisdom, and better worship?
7. “We ask for wisdom in times of trial, wisdom that will enable us to face up to our present situation (even if that situation is cancer, job loss, divorce, or children on the road to ruin) and see what is best for us to do and enable us also to keep rejoicing in God’s gift of present salvation and promise of future glory as we battle through” (p. ). If this statement were pointing to your own current circumstances, what particularly would you be expected to do?
8. Review Jesus’s assessment of the way of wisdom when he chose to stop teaching and to bless the children instead (pp. ). How might looking at “kingdom issues” help you to make a wise assessment in one of your current decisions?
9. Review the story of three servants in Matthew 25:14–30. If you were to insert the term “wisdom” into that parable as your “talents,” what steps would this parable encourage you to take or not take?
10. Where do you most need wisdom right now? Ask God for it right now.
Chapter 6: With a Little Help from Our Friends
What are some practical rules that you follow when it comes to giving and receiving advice?
“Individuality and individualism are in fact two very different things” (p. ). Reread the section subtitled “Individuality and Individualism.” Then give three examples of what individuality says, does, and thinks, and then what individualism says, does, and thinks.
Why is individuality so difficult and individualism so tempting?
The Greek word koinōnia signifies “the act and consequence of sharing what God has given to each of us: I give to you what I have to share, you give to me what you have to share, and we both end up enriched and encouraged beyond where we were when we started” (p. ). When and how have you experienced koinonia? Or, when and how do you wish you had a better experience of koinonia?
The church is “our corporate, spiritual friend” (p. ). In what ways does your church guide and guard you?
How can you contribute to the spiritual well-being of others in your church?
Proverbs 11:14 says, “In an abundance of counselors there is safety.” Does this mean that if you want God’s guidance as you make a major decision, you should poll your Christian friends and then make the decision advised by the largest number of friends? Why or why not?
Slowly and thoughtfully read the six proverbs quoted on pages pausing to reflect after each one. Select one as a needed corrective for yourself. When, why, and how do you hope to implement it?
Read the story of Agabus giving advice to the apostle Paul—and Paul rejecting that advice (Acts 20:22–21:14). What do Paul’s actions here suggest to you about the way you ought to weigh advice even when given with good intent from godly friends?
In prayer, bring to God one area where you need his guidance. As you pray, ask yourself and God these questions from page :
What is the best I can do for the glory of God?
What is the best I can do for the good of others?
What is the best I can do for the advancing of God’s kingdom?
What is the best witness to God’s truth and power, and to the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ?
Chapter 7: Modeling
J. I. Packer points to two role models who helped shape the person that he is: Richard Baxter and George Whitefield (pp. ). Who has been in some way a role model to you? (Consider those whose lives are contemporary to your own as well as people of the past whose lives or writings have drawn you to model them in some way.)
Whom would you like to model? Why?
In expounding the phrase “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” from Psalm 23, the authors say, “If the sheep supposed that the shepherd’s eye was off it while it trotted along in the flock, the sheep would be wrong. Similarly, we must understand that God in his sovereign providence is leading and guiding us through each day of our lives, whether that day calls for new, far-reaching decisions or not” (pp. ). Survey your most recent past, full day, measuring it from top to bottom. Upon reflection about that day, where do you sense “God in his sovereign providence . . . leading and guiding”?
How does this sheep’s-eye view of the shepherd inform your understanding of God’s guidance, even if you did not notice it that day?
Review the threefold answer to the question, What can models do for us? (pp. )
• Models will enlarge our vision
• Models make us realize what could and should be in our lives
• Encountering a model can help us vocationally
Select the one most relevant to your current setting and reread that section. What is the best way you can respond to this particular purpose of a model?
6. Read aloud Hebrews 11:1–12:2 as if you were proclaiming it as a sermon about models for the people of God. As you survey the “cloud of witnesses” in chapter 11, what person or qualities would you like to model? How?
7. Read once more Hebrews 12:1–2. “This is the climax, to which the tour of the heroes’ gallery was, it now appears, simply the preliminary. Jesus, centrally and definitively . . . must be the model for his followers” (p. ). When you are “looking to Jesus” as your model, what do you see?
8. “In God’s church everybody is a leader to somebody . . .” (p. ). Read Peter’s instructions to us in 1 Peter 5:2–3. Who in the church are likely to see you as a model or a shepherd? Which of Peter’s instructions here can you take as corrective guidance so that you can better serve as a shepherd in your own church setting?
9. What warning do you find in the statement from Jeremiah 22:22: “The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds” (p. )?
10. In Matthew 11:28–30, Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. . . .” Picture yourself attached by a yoke to Jesus as described on page . What would you want to say to this divine model with whom you share the yoke of your life? Write and then pray your response.
Chapter 8: Guided Life Commitments
As you reflect on your life thus far, what do you see as one of the most important decisions that you have made? How did you go about making that decision?
Under “Vocational Guidance: Its Nature,” the authors note that they see some Christians as being guided by God mainly through rational understanding of Scripture, opportunity, and skills or interest. Others seek for God’s guidance through “feelingitis.” Which approach is closest to your usual sense of God’s guidance in your decisions? Reread the paragraph beginning “Yet the way to pray . . .” (p. ). What shift might the suggestions in this paragraph have on your own praying for guidance during times of decision?
Part of God’s vocational guidance includes commitment to our families. “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8). What examples can you think of by which this principle is lived out—or ignored? What personal challenge does this text present to you (p. )?
“Family members of people with ‘special needs’ make lifelong career adjustments in order to provide. . . .” (p. ). How have you seen this principle at work in ways that you admire? Pause now to pray for a family that includes someone with special needs.
Reflect on the life commitments of Moses, Nehemiah, and Paul (pp. ). Which of these appeals to you as paralleling your own experience in some way? How?
“Commonly, if not invariably, God orchestrates circumstances that bring to a head the issue of life commitment to a vocational task” (p. ). As you think about your own current vocational commitment (student, homemaker, worker, or other), what was one primary trigger to your commitment to this role? How, if at all, do you see God’s guidance as part of that trigger?
Notice the closing statements as Moses, Nehemiah, and Paul each came to the end of his life (pp. ). Write one sentence that you hope would similarly comment on your life.
God guided Moses and Paul, as he does many of us, through vocational course corrections—which might have looked initially like failure. As you look back on your life thus far, how has God used what looked like failure as a guided correction in the course of your life?
If you are enduring a current disappointment or failure, what hint of God’s guidance toward a course correction can you explore? How?
The section heading titled “Conclusions” (p. ) raises five questions. Select one of these that is most relevant to your current setting. How might you act on the help offered in that brief paragraph?
Chapter 9: Situation Ethics
Peruse the three quotations that open this chapter (p. ). What does each quotation reveal about the speaker’s view of circumstances?
What examples have you seen (or experienced) of self-indulgent situation ethics (p. )?
We can make decisions by calculating consequences. We can decide what to do based on which course of action will lead to the most good and the least harm (p. ). What do you find helpful about this criterion for decision making? What limitations do you see in it?
“Bible-believers . . . see that law and love belong together, that law is love’s eyes, that love for God and humankind is the law’s heart, and that the conjunction remains a nonnegotiable of Christianity” (pp. ). If this is a true statement, what does it reveal about God’s nature? What does it suggest about an appropriate ethic for God’s people?
The authors observe that life-situations are “a field of God’s sovereignty” but are also “a field of Satan’s endeavor,” and finally life-situations are “a field of personal responsibility” (pp. ). Bring to mind one of your own life-situations of the past week. How can you draw on all three of these observations as you respond to that situation?
Review the story of Aaron’s golden calf as summarized on pages and Exodus 32. What things went wrong in Aaron’s response to his situation?
Read Luke 4:1–13, which records the temptation of Christ (pp. ). As you look at the various responses Jesus made to the three situations Satan introduced, what do you see that you might want to imitate in your own response to difficult situations?
Review David’s story as summarized on pages . In what ways is David both an example and a caution to you?
In the section titled “Situational Guidance” (pp. ), the authors list a series of seven steps that can lead to good situational decisions. Write out one choice that you must now make. Begin to work your way through these steps as you seek God’s guidance. What do you expect to find most helpful about this process?
As you continue to reflect on your own troubling situation, write or speak a prayer of trust in God for his guarding, guiding presence in this matter.
Chapter 10: Guarded and Guided by the Holy Spirit
Quietly meditate on the words of Simon Browne that open this chapter (p. ). If this were to be your own prayer, what things would you be saying about yourself? about God? Begin by praying this prayer aloud for yourself, or your discussion group, or your church.
Review the section titled “Introducing the Holy Spirit” (pp. ). Suppose you were in conversation with a person who believed that there is only one God but had no concept of Trinity. What would you want that person to understand about the Holy Spirit?
Augustine understood that “in all the acts of God all three persons of the Trinity are involved, expressing their unity” (p. ). How can this truth influence the way you pray for the Spirit’s guidance?
This section is littered with Scripture passages. Select one; read and study it. What does it contribute to your understanding of God’s guidance?
Review the section “Guided by the Holy Spirit?” (pp. ).Which category best describes your approach to guidance by the Holy Spirit: superspiritual or subspiritual? How and why?
Consider the “three mistakes” explained under your most preferred approach to guidance. What do you find helpful (or not helpful) here? Explain.
In the section titled “Led by the Holy Spirit” (pp. ), the authors describe a Spirit-led person as having new birth, new life, new conflict, and new tasks. Focus on one of these as you reflect on the work of God’s Spirit in your life. Describe some of the ways in which you see God currently at work in your life in that particular area. What challenges do you face as a result?
Read Romans 8:1–17, one of the great New Testament passages on the Holy Spirit. Select one sentence from this passage that challenges or encourages you. Write or speak or pray your response.
What is one step that you could take as you further explore God’s guidance of you through the Holy Spirit?
Epilogue and Appendix of Reflections from John Newton
The epilogue is titled “An End to Fear” (pp. ). On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate your “fear factor” regarding God’s guidance? Explain.
Paragraph three of the epilogue (p. ) warns against five forms of superstition that Christians sometimes fall into when they try to find God’s guidance. Which of these “superstitions” do you find in your own natural inclination? How can you become appropriately cautious in this area?
What do you find in a bird’s-eye view of the whole sweep of Scripture’s narrative that strengthens your faith in God as a faithful God? (pp. )
What do you find in the last two paragraphs of the section titled “Faithful God” (pp. ) that softens your own fears about God’s guidance?
“All our prayers, in intention anyway, should be reducible to ‘Hallowed be thy name’” (p. ). If you were to take this statement as a consistent goal of your own praying for guidance, how might you pray differently? What might you expect from God as a response to this kind of praying?
Bring to mind one of your own current needs for God’s guidance. What specifically could you say to God if your primary goal in that situation is “Hallowed be thy name”?
What do you find helpful in John Newton’s letter answering the question, “In what manner are we to expect the Lord’s promised guidance to influence our judgments, and direct our steps in the path of duty?” (p. ).
If you were able to write a responding letter to John Newton, what more would you want to ask him?
Return to the excerpts from Psalm 25 on pages . Softly read the selected verses of this psalm aloud, stopping after each verse to meditate and pray. Thank God for all that he is, and that this God is your guard and your guide.
