So I'm reading "Finding God's will for your Life" by DeSales, and I lose the book

[nobody]

So what do you think that means?

I’m really struggling trying to figure out what God wants from me, what I should be doing with my life, and I find this great book, start reading it, and now I can’t find it. What do you think this means?

 

[Joysong]

Try asking St. Anthony to help you find it?

 

[blessedstar]

I think it means that you are very sincere in your striving to know, serve and love God.

I would like to see you a little more relaxed. By that I mean, don’t take yourself too seriously. The salvation of your soul is a serious matter, but God does not want you fretting about your service and love for Him. God wants you to trust in Him and His Providence.

You have been reading this spiritual book which is a good thing and flicking through the pages you have anxiously been looking for something that speaks to you about your mission in life, however all the while your life is going on all about you in all the smallness of every day life and at every second you are in the Presence of God Who has you right where you are at the minute to love and serve those around you that He has placed in your life, no matter if they love you or not.

The moment is all you have and it is this very vital moment that you have the greatest opportunity in the world, to love and serve others and to love and serve God.

It is in these daily interactions with people that God gradually unfolds your own personal gospel to be lived out in the Gospel of Christ Jesus. This is your mission, to live your own life in the Gospel of Jesus making Jesus manifest to the world in you in everything you do say and think and this is your prayer in Jesus before the Father.

In your day to day life you will see God’s plan for you unfold like a little drip drip drip of water down a rock face and eventually the water will gush into a stream and soon enough it will become a river until you become an ocean in Christ. Pay close attention to what holy and learned people around you are saying to you, to the opportunities that present themselves to you. If someone suggests a course of events such as helping at a soup kitchen, pray about it then go and dip your toe in the water, see if it is for you. If not move on to the next thing, because the next thing will always come. More importantly listen to those who correct you, I have alot of time for people who correct me, they are a good friend to me because whoever will correct me will help me become closer to Jesus. Also I very rarely do anything without taking the advice of at least four trusted and learned people, they may think I don’t have a mind of my own and I don’t care what they think of me, all I care about is hearing what they have to say, it is always good to take advice and then to take this advice into prayer with Jesus. I believe we musn’t act on our own compulsions without having first heard the opinion of learned and holy people and spending time in prayer with Jesus.

As Christians our primary vocation is to pray and all other vocations arise out of a deep prayer life.

Spend time in prayer without fretting but trusting in God that wherever He would have you He will lead you. It isn’t about doing great things for God, it is about doing little things with love for God. If only people knew what a great mountain of love they can build by doing little things for the love of God.

You are on fire with love of Jesus and anxious to serve, this is a good place to be so now be prudent and trust in God who instills this into your soul.

Don’t worry about the book, you will find it when you least expect it.

Pray, persevere in prayer and don’t worry.

In my Living Prayer of life.

 

[Andy_K]

I think the OP would do well to look over this weekend’s gospel

 

[ncjohn]

So what do you think that means?

I’m really struggling trying to figure out what God wants from me, what I should be doing with my life, and I find this great book, start reading it, and now I can’t find it. What do you think this means?

It could also mean that what you read was what you needed at this time.

I have started several of the spiritual classics, only to be “stopped” at some point, either by being distracted to something else or because they were not meaning anything further to me at that time. I started Dark Night of the Soul, for instance, three years ago. I read the first few chapters with great interest and an ability to understand and identify with what John was talking about. Then it became almost like gibberish to me and I got discouraged and put it away. I then spent several months feeling very dry, unable to focus much, and feeling very alone.

I feel quite sure in retrospect that I had read enough to lead me to an understanding that God then chose to test and refine in me. I needed that experience before I would be able to make sense of the later chapters and will wait for God to call me back to the book when He feels I am ready for further instruction from it.

Reading one of these books just because we feel like we “should” be can be a fruitless exercise. Reading beyond where we are supposed to in one can be the same. Trying to read straight through one, as one would read a novel, without taking the time to examine what meaning the particular passages have in your life, might cause you to miss the love letter God is sending you at the moment.

It’s hard to say what your situation might be. If I was to recommend anything, it would be to sit in prayer, asking God to clarify what message He was sending. Perhaps giving some thought to what you did read, and how other circumstances in your life might relate to that. I usually find that when God is sending me a message it will come from multiple directions, so you might well find some correlation between what you’ve read and something you’ve experienced or heard from other places.

Blessings to you that you are searching. God has promised to reveal Himself to those who seek His face, so I have little doubt that you will find Him peeking around a corner somewhere.