How do you know what is God's will?

Yesterday I attended a talk at CSC about discerning God's will. Many times, especially when we are making major decisions in life, we want to know which decision is God's will and which is not. The session, done by Father William Goh, talks about discerning in a clear and systematic way.

Basically, there are 3 criteria for deciding whether the decision is willed by God.

1. The decision should not lead you to abandon your current responsibilities. For example, if you suddenly feel that God is calling you to do mission work in Africa, yet you have elderly parents to take care of here in Singapore... then most probably, that is not God's will. Usually the decision will enhance your present vocation/duties and not cause you to abandon it. There are exceptions of course, but then you have to see if it fulfills the other 2 criteria.

2. The decision you make will result you in being a state of peace, joy or consolation. This state is enduring and not momentary. So if you decide on a decision and it leaves you excited at first but very unsettled later, maybe you should re-evaluate. On the other hand, the decision might be a difficult one and you might experience fear and anxiety at first, but if after a while you find an inner peace and joy despite the fear, it might actually be the right decision.

3. The decision that you make, results in virtues such as humility, charity, obedience perseverance. This means that the decision you make will result in more humility, charity, obedience and perseverance either being exhibited by yourself or the people around you. The most important virtue is charity or love - all the other virtues pale before love. If the decision results in love, then it has a higher chance of being God's will.

The talk goes on more about presuppositions of discernment, about some basic principles of discernment, for example, discernment is best done in a group (personal discernment is less effective than group). Also discernment should include the counsel of holy people and legitimate authorities (like your parish priest ;-) ) The decision that you are about to make must also be in line with church teachings, bible teachings even before we consider the 3 criteria.

Overall the talk was very enriching, enlightening and very useful for daily decision making. It was held at the Catholic Spirituality Centre.

// Dan