In spiritual direction, the focus isn’t on what needs to be accomplished or fixed, but on where God is, and what his invitation into love and communion is.
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Spiritual Direction is a space for deepening your prayer life through the practice of noticing. So often we can get tunnel vision on goals, dreams, or the people we are leading, and God’s presence in our lives can go totally unnoticed. In spiritual direction, the focus isn’t on what needs to be accomplished or fixed, but on where God is, and what his invitation into love and communion is. Here are four things Spiritual Direction helps us notice.
As we go through life’s circumstances, there will always be times where we need to see God’s love in ways we’ve never experienced before. It’s very common to experience spiritual dryness in prayer. So what does it look like to overcome it? When Paul prays for the Ephesians, he prays they may have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is (Ephesians 3:18). Spiritual Direction is a space to grow in noticing God’s love, because there is always more of God to discover and experience.
Finding God’s will and guidance in our lives can be difficult, especially when there are big decisions to make or times of transition. We might be seeking greater purpose and meaning, but not sure how to pursue it. Spiritual discernment can be a struggle. Once again, Paul encourages the Romans to not be conformed to the patterns of this word, but be transformed through the renewing of our minds. Then, he says, we will be able to know God’s good, perfect, and pleasing will (Romans 12:2). Spiritual Direction is a place where transformation happens, and through that transformation we notice God’s movement in new ways.
What we know and are taught about God can sometimes not match up with our experience of God. More often than not, our walk with God can be described as feeling stuck, grieving, confused, or burned out. Overcoming doubts in faith is difficult to navigate on your own. In spiritual direction, all of those feelings are welcome, not as problems to be solved, but as places to meet God. It is there we notice his faithful presence.
Just as Samuel needed Eli’s help to recognize God was speaking to him, so we often need help noticing when God is speaking to us. The ways we’ve heard God speak in the past might be different than how God wants to speak to us now. In spiritual direction, a director’s role is not to direct you and tell you what to do, but to listen with you to the direction of the Holy Spirit.
Are you interested in spiritual direction? Take a step towards a more meaningful and fulfilling spiritual journey with God. Reach out to Exponent Group to get connected to a spiritual director.
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