I’m often thinking about the next thing.  What now?  Where?  How?  In that I find myself praying for the Spirit’s guidance.

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians was that God “may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him” (1:17).  The directionality in that statement is vital.  The unfolding of God’s wisdom and revelation is intended to lead to knowledge of him, not simply certainty of whatever life change we’re contemplating.

What this means is that as we discern and navigate whatever hard forks life sends our way, we also discover God as the source of our life.  As we pray our way through things, the Spirit “intercedes with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).  To be led by the Spirit in prayer is to be drawn nearer to the Father’s heart.  

This is promising in theory but trickier to practice, because in situations of uncertainty we (naturally enough) want answers and resolution.  Uncertainty is a kind of pain radiating along our jawlines and temples and tossing dreams.  

But uncertainty also marks an in-between space that can become fruitful if we tend it.  This happens in the obvious ways of growing in trust for God as our life and provider.  Yet in a broader sense, paying attention to the ways that the Spirit is leading us to pray becomes a source of insight.  What fire is the Spirit stoking?  What reticence?  What compuncture?  What joy?  These are signposts, and as we pray along them we “come to know him.”  

To discern is to know God more.  This is especially true when we act on the Spirit’s leading.  Uncertainty can be painful, but there’s also an allure to uncertainty, the sweet nothings of What if? and What about? and In the future.  To decide and to act forecloses other paths, and there’s a secret place within us that covets even the scary road’s curvaceous, unfulfilled potential.  There’s a temptation to indefiniteness that we have to overcome.

Whenever you’re seeking God’s guidance on a next big step, be open not just to guidance for the step but also knowledge of God.  Through the Spirit, What now? prayers can dovetail into: What more, Oh God, of you?