God’s Guidance With a Lesson

This is a somewhat long posting and I hope that you can take the time to read through it. This posting describes an experience that was very meaningful to me. I hope you find it interesting.
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Christians who have opened their hearts to our Lord Jesus Christ, turned control of their lives to God, and rely upon the Holy Spirit and scripture for guidance have a huge advantage when making decisions about what to do in specific circumstances. The Christian consistently prays about the situation, asking God what he or she should do in order to best benefit His kingdom and waits for an answer. I have had times when that answer comes immediately and there have been times when the answer is slow in revealing itself. I don’t let the delay deter me. I figure that God wants me to continue to think about it, most likely to help me gain a better understanding of myself or perhaps to push me toward reading scripture to discover the answer there. Either way, a correct answer always comes.

James 1:5-8 -- If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Recently I have had to make a major decision.

For nearly seven years I have been the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for our church’s Christian K-3 to 8 school. During that time our school has thrived and we are now in the initial stages of preparing to expand our capacity to accommodate forecasted growth as well as to renovate existing facilities. This will be a multimillion-dollar project that will require a great deal of work by many people. Along with this, the routine work of the Board must continue.

Over recent months since my brain surgery, brain radiation, and sporadic chemotherapy treatments my health has been failing me. I have good days and I have bad days and, of course, I cannot predict from day to day whether it will be a good one or a bad one. As a result it has been very difficult for me to commit to attending board meetings, taking on specific tasks related to the board, or working with our Head of School and Executive Committee to create meeting agendas and establish “next steps” for the board and school. Along with this there is no indication that my health will improve.

After not being able to attend a couple of critical meetings during the past month I began to wonder whether or not I was still capable of chairing the board. I felt as though I was letting the group down by not providing the leadership I was tasked with providing. The executive committee is completely capable of fulfilling the responsibility and we have a very competent Vice Chair so I was not concerned about the work getting done. But I was beginning to feel guilty.

I turned to God for guidance.

My first question to God was, “Dear Lord, what should I do to best build Your kingdom, continue as Chairman of the Board or step down and let someone else who can make the commitment to take on the task?”

No Response.

This did not bother me in that often answers are slow in coming. I continued to think and pray about it and then asked God, “Great and mighty Lord, should I move aside from the Chairmanship?”

Again, no response.

Okay. He didn’t like that question. What about this one: “Lord, should someone else besides me Chair this board?”

Sigh. Again, no guidance.

This had been going on for sometime and I was beginning to wonder if the Holy Spirit was on vacation or something. I continued to pray and think about it. I began to reason that there was always the chance that my health would improve and that I could slip back into an affective leadership role on the board. But of course, the opposite may occur. I realized that this was probably wishful thinking.

Finally God responds.

Okay, time to ask once again for guidance. This time I put a little different twist on the question. “Gracious and mighty Lord, what is stopping me from resigning my position as Chairman of Board?”

This time, in an instant, like a lightning bolt, the answer came. “Pride”.

I almost jumped back when this answer was given to me so quickly and forcefully. Of course, pride. I was very proud of the work I had been doing with the board and, in trying to make the decision about what to do I was letting my own pride get in the way of the decision that would best benefit God’s kingdom.

God does not like self-righteous pride.

Proverbs 16:5 -- The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

Romans 12:3 -- For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

1 Corinthians 4:7 -- For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Jeremiah 9:23-24 -- ...but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight.

And, of course, it was Lucifer’s pride that got him banished from heaven.

Ezekiel 28:17 -- Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.

God tells us to be humble.

God delights in providing for us, and delights in our good works and our humility.

Micah 6:8 -- He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

James 4:6 -- But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

1 Peter 5:6 -- Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

Luke 14:11 -- For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Proverbs 22:4 -- The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.

Psalm 25:9 -- He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

What a relief. I now had an answer as to what to do. In order to best build God’s kingdom through leadership of the school’s board I needed to step aside and turn the position over to another who could commit the time and the energy to the task.

As I look back on how I went about asking for God’s guidance on this decision I realize that He purposely forced me to think about the situation and ask the question in such a way that would not only provide the answer but also reminded me that the work I had done with the board was only possible because of the talents God had provided me. My pride in the work I had done was self-righteous. This self-righteousness resulted in the board not being as affective as it could be in profiting God’s kingdom because of my inability to completely fulfill my task as chairman.

God is great. God is good.

Thank you Lord not only for your guidance but also the lesson you taught me about pride. You are truly a wise and gracious God.

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