The real obstacles to faith are generally very simple.
They are the spite, fear, covetousness, or pride we are unwilling to confess.
Dr. Paul Tournier, The Person Reborn, “Life Under the Guidance of The Spirit”, p. 169
The main thing for us in this world is not being sure about what God’s will is, but seeking it sincerely and following what we do understand of it.
Tournier, p. 169
Many people would like to be sure of God’s guidance before trusting it. They are unwilling to take the risk of making a mistake.
In my experience they have always waited indefinitely.
p. 169
But even our mistakes teach us to distinguish the Spirit’s guidance more clearly, when we really want to see it.
Every event takes on a fresh significance, for we are no longer concerned only with whether it is to our advantage or not, but with what God is saying to us through it.
Tournier, p. 170
Nothing is more futile than to argue endlessly about whether, on some occasion in the past, one has made a mistake or not. …the seeking of God’s guidance is, despite all our mistakes, the surest rule of life.
p. 170
Then my friend exclaimed, “I am like Lot’s wife. My life is petrified because I keep looking back. I turn that problem over and over in my mind, uselessly, without ever discovering whether I did right or not. My life is no longer an adventure, because my faith is shaken and I am not looking for God’s guidance anymore. I want to start going forward again.”
Tournier, p. 170
We all find it difficult to understand God’s guidance, because we lack imagination.
We are prisoners of our prejudices.
We find it hard to understand the detours along which God takes us, and it is only afterward that we see that we had to go that way.
p. 170
…in our lives we should doubtlessly never know the joy of a really fruitful inspiration if we were not ready to follow many others which do not bear the fruits we expect of them.
Thus, amid many uncertainties, we learn the patience of faith.
A person’s life is never changed in the way we should have imagined.
Dr. Paul Tournier, The Person Reborn, “Life Under the Guidance of The Spirit”, p. 171
One must be honest and never pretend to have a solution, never fall victim to one’s own powers of suggestion.
“I had realized that I could not do anything by myself, and had clutched at the idea that God would act for me and that all that was left for me to do was to see how he would set about it.”
“The attitude we are able to take to our personal problems is in the end more important than their solution.”
Tournier, p. 171
God grants what he commands.
His intervention is also seen in those sudden, unexpected experiences, at times of utter despair, when all at once the mind is filled with the absolute certainty of God’s love, even though there has been no recent mention made of it.
It is like an unexpected signpost upon an uncertain road.
Dr. Paul Tournier, The Person Reborn, “Life Under the Guidance of The Spirit”, p. 172
