God's Will vs. My Desire

[nickybr38]

How do I discern God’s Will from my desire?

I’ve been praying and praying for wisdom and one answer keeps popping into my head but it makes little sense and I just don’t see how it could work.

So I keep praying for wisdom and guidance and the same answer keeps coming to me.

How do I tell if this is truly His Will or just my own desire?

And I mean this in a general sense as well. How do we ever know if we’re acting in His Will or seeking after our own desires?

 

[CrimsonThorn]

If your desires are not in line with the Catechism, then they are not from God or God’s will.

 

[rafarose]

Hey,

You must stay patient. This is something I deal with as well. Remember that if your heart and God’s heart are in union with each other, your decisions will be guided according to His will. Your mind and heart can function separately, meaning that our desires can sometimes be limited to us alone in our mind, because that is how much we can fathom.
It is not for us to know what God’s plans are for us in the future simply because it will make us go crazy.

Its hard to separate what we desire versus what God desires because we ourselves sometimes are filled with so much noise. We confuse the two voices because there is so much going on. Try to eliminate all the noise for one hour by meditation and just appreciate God’s presence in silence.

May God bless you

 

[WaitingForJesus]

I suffer from similar confusion about my will versus God’s will versus and even what the evil one is trying to get me to do. I stumbled upon some passages in St. Faustina’s diary and they helped me a great deal. Ultimately, I concluded that I don’t have to worry too much between my will and God’s if I follow these guidelines in discerning whether or not to take a particular action.

1. 1. Spiritual Counsel Given Me by Father Andrasz, S.J.

First: You must not turn away from these interior inspirations, but always tell everything to
your confessor. If you recognize that these interior inspirations refer to your own self; that is
to say, they are for the good of your soul or for the good of other souls, l urge you to follow
them; and you must not neglect them, but always do so in consultation with your confessor.
Second: If these inspirations are not in accord with the faith or the spirit of the Church, they
must be rejected immediately as coming from the evil spirit.
Third: If these inspirations do not refer to souls, in general, nor specifically to their good, you
should not take them too seriously, and it would be better to even ignore them.

Of course it isn’t always possible to talk with a confessor as our priests are quite busy these days, but if you are seriously troubled about the decision then I would encourage you to do that. Here is a later paragraph with a similar theme.

1549 I want to live in the spirit of faith. I accept everything that comes my way as given me by
the loving will of God, who sincerely desires my happiness. And so I will accept with
submission and gratitude everything that God sends me. I will pay no attention to the voice
of nature and to the promptings of self-love. Before each important action, I will stop to
consider for a moment what relationship it has to eternal life and what may be the main
reason for my undertaking it: is it for the glory of God, or for the good of my own soul, or
for the good of the souls of others? If my heart says yes, then I will not swerve from
carrying out the given action, unmindful of either obstacles or sacrifices. I will not be
frightened into abandoning my intention. It is enough for me to know that it is pleasing to
God. On the other hand, if I learn that the action has nothing in common with what I have
just mentioned, I will try to elevate it to a loftier sphere by means of a good intention. And
if I learn that something flows from my self-love, I will cancel it out right from the start.

1550 In cases of doubt, I will not act, but will scrupulously seek clarifications from the priests,
and in particular from my spiritual director…

 

[Bruised_Reed]

What Does God Want? by Fr. Mike Scanlan. If you google the Fr. Scanlan and the word “discernment” there are several articles or blog posts discussing discernment that may also help.

Also, something to keep in mind:

Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

I think some people think this means that if they love God or pray to him, that he will give them what they want/pray for. I understand it to mean that if I put God first, if I delight in him, that I will know him better and how he lets me know his will for me.

And by “delight” I think about him being the first person I go to when something good happens or I do something fun, as well as spending time in his presence at Mass or Adoration, or by practicing the presence of God at home and at work.

ETA: God gives us choices, too. His will is that we go to heaven and that we trust and obey on our journey there. Whatever you are sorting out, if is doesn’t break a Commandment or anything else in Scripture or Catholic teaching it’s an arrow pointing you toward whatever it is that you want. It is possible that your desire and God’s will are the same thing in your situation.

In the book, Fr. Scanlan suggests that you consider other times you’ve tried to discern God’s will. Fr. Scanlan says that God seems to use the same way of “communicating” with an indivdual.

 

[Lady_Love]

If you advance (step out in faith through your actions) in good will and in the desire to do His will, God will lead you where you need to be. He will use even your misguided decisions to bring you to your path. God says, “Do not be afraid.”

 

[nickybr38]

If your desires are not in line with the Catechism, then they are not from God or God’s will.

Sometimes it’s not as simple as in the Catechism or not. So how do we tell if the Catechism says absolutely nothing about the situation we’re in?

 

[Yearning_Heart]

If it is clearly against the precepts of the Church or promotes sin, then it is clearly not God’s will.

There are many times though, when it’s not obviously sinful, and so is ambiguous as to the source of desires. Many of our desires are our own, so it can be helpful to look at what that would lead to if you followed it: is it a realistic view, does it lead to pride, does it help others rather than myself, what does it mean for those I am responsible for? What will happen if I don’t follow this inspiration?

Specifically, you’ve mentioned praying about it, but that there isn’t a resolution yet. That could mean that it’s a temptation to you to loose peace over, or it just isn’t the right time yet for you to know the answer and that God is asking you to wait and to trust. Or a lack of an answer could be prompting you to seek the advice of someone else more knowedgable about the spiritual life about it.

For general things, there are many Saints who recommend spiritual direction, even if not discerning anything in particular-with the aim of growing in one’s relationship with God. Their gift of listening, asking questions, and giving advice can be a great gift in helping us to discern the desires within us.

There is a book by Fr Gallagher, Discernment of spirits, that looks are discerning the movements of your heart using the Ignatian rules of discernment. It covers discernment in everyday living in your relationship with God, not especially vocationally (though that’s covered in examples in the second book I think). Spirits in this sense are not always angels or temptations etc, but trys to listen to whats going on in your own heart and how God works in it and the events in one’s life.

 

[houston1]

If you advance (step out in faith through your actions) in good will and in the desire to do His will, God will lead you where you need to be. He will use even your misguided decisions to bring you to your path. God says, “Do not be afraid.”

I like what everyone else has said on this. However, Lady Love’s brief statement is excellent and I’d like to add to it.

If we truly seek God’s will by avoiding sin and by obeying all His commandments to the best of our ability, God will direct us to the path where we need to be. We should seek counsel, if necessary, and always examine the motive of our desire. If the Holy Spirit reveals nothing sinful or contradictory to our Catholic faith in what we desire, we can take a step of faith trusting that the Lord will direct our path. Like Lady Love said, God did say, “Do not be afraid.”

Also, if you still find that you fear as you take a step, cling to our Lord in prayer as 1 Pet. 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares about you.”

I hope this helps.

houston1

 

[houston1]

I like what everyone else has said on this. However, Lady Love’s brief statement is excellent and I’d like to add to it.

If we truly seek God’s will by avoiding sin and by obeying all His commandments to the best of our ability, God will direct us to the path where we need to be. We should seek counsel, if necessary, and always examine the motive of our desire. If the Holy Spirit reveals nothing sinful or contradictory to our Catholic faith in what we desire, we can take a step of faith trusting that the Lord will direct our path. Like Lady Love said, God did say, “Do not be afraid.”

Also, if you still find that you fear as you take a step, cling to our Lord in prayer as 1 Pet. 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares about you.”

I hope this helps.

houston1

I would also say one last thing . . . suppose your desire is not objectly sinful but may be driven somewhat by self-love or some other motive driven by our human weakness (e.g., the need for encouragement or affirmation from a certain other person), what must one do if the desire for affirmation from a certain person remains after one has sought God’s will through much prayer, counsel, and examination?

So, suppose one is overly concerned about what a certain other person thinks of them because one highly esteems this person. One may find that this desire for affirmation may affect their decisions - i.e., they may join a group, committee, or otherwise seek to increase opportunities to be around this other person. What must one do here? Are joining these groups or activities sinful? What if one finds that avoiding this other person is unavoidable due to circumstances?

The advice often given is to banish those thoughts because we should only care what God thinks of us. However, try as one may to banish the thoughts (i.e., I care what this person thinks or I want to be around this person), what does one do if the desire still remains? This concern is especially difficult if the one cannot avoid the other person altogether due to circumstances.

What can one do here? My thoughts are to keep praying for oneself and the other person trusting that God will remove the desire eventually or otherwise grant an outcome which will ultimately satisfy the desire. Alas, this becomes an interior trial that one must bear until the Lord chooses to alleviate it.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?