Guided By The Lord

There's a big difference between asking the Lord to show us the way or how to proceed, and asking the Lord to guide us. Asking the Lord to show us what to do or how to be requires no faith. In fact, it denies the possibility of faith. If you're all powerful and all knowing, prove it. Show me. Show me what to do and if it lines up with my preconceived notions and my current mood, maybe I'll give it a try, but I'm still not convinced. I believe God does not show us the way very often for two reasons. First, if we were to see exactly what is required of us, our hearts would fail us and we would turn the other way and run. But more importantly, if God shows us, then there is no opportunity for growth on our part. Yes, we may stumble and fall. Yes, we may choose a path that is less than ideal. But we will begin to learn for ourselves. We will have experiential knowledge - knowing not just in our head but in our muscles and our bones. God did not create us to be passive observers of miracle after miracle. He did not create us just so that He could show us His marvelous work and His glory. He created us to take part in that work. To go out and create and work little miracles of our own. He is deeply invested in developing us as creators in our own right, and as often as we go forth with faith and ask for guidance He will willingly grant it. Instead of sitting back and asking for a miracle, we can go out and try something, and if it doesn't work, we can try something else, and as we begin to trust in God that He will not suffer us to veer too far off course, God can begin to trust us with bigger challenges and greater opportunities to create and work miracles. Nephi did not hang outside of Jerusalem praying that the Lord would show him the precise location of the brass plates, and the exact time they would be unguarded. No. He tried something. It didn't work. Tried something else. Didn't work. Then he walked into Jerusalem in the dead of night, alone, not being shown but being led and guided by the Spirit according to his faith. Because Nephi had the faith to be guided without knowing beforehand, instead of demanding to be shown, he began a lifelong habit of going forth with faith and trusting that the Lord would guide him. When his bow broke, he acted by making a new one and then asking to be guided to where he could find food. When he was commanded to build a ship, he acted by finding the ore to make the tools he would need to build a boat. Building a boat is a huge task, so he worked on his faith and his skills first by building a bellows and making tools. If God clearly showed us everything He has planned for us we would collapse in despair at the huge yawning gulf between where we are now and where we must get to. But if instead we trust that the Lord knows what He is doing and allow Him to guide us as we act in faith, then little by little we will become that shining, glorious vision that the Lord expects us to be.