Questions For Discernment
Below you’ll find questions for discernment. I hope you find these light up the runway of your life whether you are in a season of discenrment or somone you love or lead is.
If this is a current season of uncertainty in your life, what do you know to be true right now (even if it’s small)?
What are your feelings as you discern God’s purposes for your life?
Can you name two or three emotions you may be feeling?
Could those emotions tells us something about our relationship with God in the process
Whose perspective might matter most in this situation?
Who else could you include in the discernment process with you?
Could you create your own version of a “clearness committee” and host a pointed discussion with faith-filled and trustworthy friends? (If so, when?)
Do you notice any themes, patterns or insights you need to pay attention to in your life?
Hearing God’s voice and trying to discern God’s purposes and plans for your future is not a secret to be decoded, a nut to be cracked or a problem to be solved. Instead, it is an opportunity. God desires for you to grow into a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him.
How are you viewing God through this process? What are you feeling about your relationship with him as it comes to discernment?
How would we know if that view of God is accurate or not?
How can you move to see this discernment process as more of an opportunity and an invitation to enter into and not a challenge or a problem to be fixed?
6. I believe one key indicator for discernment is personal peace when prayer.
Is there enough space in your life to hear God in the midst of the stillness and the silence?
Would it be wise to schedule a few hours – or even an entire day – to get away from the noise of everyday life to listen, pray and reflect?
If so, when?
If so, where (a park, a cathedral, retreat center, public library, quiet coffee shop, etc.)?
7. Consider your motives behind a potential decision.
Why do I/we want to pursue this (or why are we so hesitant)?
Is it fear? Pride? Impatience? Inconvenience? Something else?
What’s behind the desire to transition (or keep doing what we are doing)?
What’s best, not just for me, but for our family?
Do my motives reflect a life that is rooted in faith and reliant upon our Heavenly Father?
8. Now what? What might be the next specific and practical step you could take in the discernment process, even if it seems small?
What’s the next best thing you could do today?