Walking in God’s will can be challenging for many reasons. Our hearts may not be attuned to the Holy Spirit. Our own personal issues like our motives, desires, fears, poor judgment, lack of knowledge and impatience, often interfere. We may be influenced by cultural and peer pressures that cloud our perception. Spiritual forces may also seek to distract, deceive, or discourage us from following God’s will. Even after starting off right in God’s will, sometimes we veer off along the way. Navigating these challenges in decision making according to God’s will may become easier with a systematic approach that considers these factors.
Recently as I looked into this subject, I came across the Ignatian method for making prayerful decisions that does just that. It is based on the writings of 16th century Spanish Saint, Ignatius of Loyola called, “Spiritual Exercises”. Though I am not a Catholic, I found myself quite in agreement with the steps outlined and thought the steps are a practical representation of biblical principles, such as searching our hearts to be in God’s moral will, making our will subordinate to God’s sovereign will, and seeking guidance through scripture, prayer and wise counsel.
A couple articles that I found helpful in understanding this method are here and here.
Briefly, some key ideas mentioned are -
Ignatius’ guidelines for the discernment of spirits fall into four major categories: (1) seven attitudes or personal qualities required for an authentic discernment of spirits, (2) three different “times” or conditions during which decisions are made, (3) seven practical techniques which can be helpful in the discernment process, and (4) some guidelines for how to distinguish whether a given inner movement or desire comes from the good or evil spirit.
Seven essential attitudes include openness, generosity, interior freedom, prayerful reflection on experience, having one’s priorities straight, and not confusing ends with means.
Ignatius observes that in making an important decision we tend to find ourselves in one of three basic situations. We tend to either (1) feel inner clarity or certainty about what to do, or (2) we feel inner conflict about what to do, feeling pulled in different directions (for example, feeling drawn to both religious life and having a family), or (3) there is not much of anything going on inside and we feel clueless.
Seven Practical Discernment Techniques
(Spiritual Exercises, [178-187]
Ignatius suggests that we start the decision-making process by putting before our mind what it is we want to decide about. For example, we might be trying to decide whether or nor to enter a specific religious community.
He then asks us to pray for the grace to “try to be like a balance at equilibrium, without leaning to either side” (Spiritual Exercises, [179]). In other words, we should try to the extent possible not to prefer one option to the other but only desire to do God’s will. To help us maintain focus and perspective, he asks us to keep the ultimate end and goal of our existence clearly before us.
Then we pray for God to enlighten and move us to seek only what is most conducive to God’s service and praise.
One suggestion Ignatius makes is to imagine a person we never met who seeks our help in how to respond to God’s call in the same decision we are considering. We then observe what advice we give this person and follow it ourselves. This is helpful since most of us are better at giving others advice than at figuring out what we should do.
Another suggestion is that we imagine ourselves at the end of our lives either on our deathbed or after our death standing before Christ our Judge. How would we feel about our decision then? What would we say to Christ about the decision we have just made? We should choose now the course of action that would give us happiness and joy in looking back on it from our deathbed and in presenting it to Christ on the day of our judgment.
When we do not experience inner clarity about the correct decision to be made, Ignatius suggests that we use our reason to weigh the matter carefully to attempt to come to a decision in line with our living out God’s will in our lives. To do this we should, bearing in mind our ultimate goal, list and weigh the advantages and disadvantages for us of the decision at hand, for example, the reasons for and against entering religious life or a specific religious community. We are then to consider which alternatives seem more reasonable and decide according to the more weighty motives – not from our selfish inclinations. Looking over our list of “pros” and “cons” for the decision at hand, we should notice if any of the reasons listed stand out from the others and why and see which way this might point us. This technique can help us move from inner confusion to greater clarity at least as to the issues that need to be attended to and help separate out which are more significant.
Having come to a decision, we turn again to God and beg for signs of God’s confirmation that the decision is leading us toward God’s service and praise. The usual sign of this confirmation from God is an experience of peacefulness about the decision. The confirmed decision has a feeling of “rightness” about it, and we feel a sense of God’s presence, blessing, and love. This is a very important step, since the feeling of rightness, peace, and joy about a decision is a positive indicator that we have made the right decision whereas feelings of anxiety, heaviness, sadness, and darkness often indicate the opposite.
What I appreciated was an emphasis on living a holy life through spiritual disciplines and not just when we need help from God, cultivating proper attitudes and motives in our heart, not confusing ends with means, using reason and using the feeling of peace as an indicator of right decision only after working through all the other steps. While I may not personally endorse all of St. Ignatius’ beliefs, I found this framework for decision making helpful.
I am wondering if anyone else has used the Ignatian method for discerning God’s will. What are your thoughts on this approach?
If not, what are some other frameworks that have been helpful to you in discerning God’s will?
What are some common mistakes in discerning God’s will that one should be cautious about?