Faith: Which part is mine and which part is His?

[JLHPROF]

To quote Michael McLean:

• Which part is mine?
  And God, which part is yours?
  Could you tell me one more time,
  I'm never quite sure.
  
  And I won't cross the line
  like I have before.
  But it gets so confusing some times.
  Should I do more, or trust the divine?
  Please, just help me define which part's mine,
  and which part is yours.

I was hoping we could have some discussion on the application of faith.  Faith has always been hard for me - not the faith of belief, but the faith of trust.
I know there is a God but understanding the principles upon which he will help me is something I have studied and studied but have yet to find a solid doctrinal conclusion.
I am familiar with the old statement "Pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you" but I was hoping for a little more than a catchphrase.

I have family members who are experts at "placing things in God's hands" and I have family members who are very much "God helps those who help themselves" people.
The scriptures are not contradictory but come at this topic from both sides.  (Prov 3, James 2, Matt 21, Mark 11)
I am wondering if anyone has found a way to a doctrinally sound and scripturally valid middle ground?  And where that middle ground might be?

[waveslider]

10 minutes ago, JLHPROF said:

To quote Michael McLean:

• Which part is mine?
  And God, which part is yours?
  Could you tell me one more time,
  I'm never quite sure.
  
  And I won't cross the line
  like I have before.
  But it gets so confusing some times.
  Should I do more, or trust the divine?
  Please, just help me define which part's mine,
  and which part is yours.

I was hoping we could have some discussion on the application of faith.  Faith has always been hard for me - not the faith of belief, but the faith of trust.
I know there is a God but understanding the principles upon which he will help me is something I have studied and studied but have yet to find a solid doctrinal conclusion.
I am familiar with the old statement "Pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you" but I was hoping for a little more than a catchphrase.

I have family members who are experts at "placing things in God's hands" and I have family members who are very much "God helps those who help themselves" people.
The scriptures are not contradictory but come at this topic from both sides.  (Prov 3, James 2, Matt 21, Mark 11)
I am wondering if anyone has found a way to a doctrinally sound and scripturally valid middle ground?  And where that middle ground might be?

I think we need to remember the Faith is a gift of the Spirit:

"8  For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9  To another faith by the same Spirit......"
1 Corinthians 12:8-9

By keeping this in mind, instead of trying force faith by will power and works, we should be trying to hear and understand what the Spirit whispers to us. We need to realize that the, "iron rod," is the word of God, which is indeed the Holy Spirit (It isn't the scriptures, as most believe. The scriptures do contain the word of God, but aren't understood properly without that Holy Spirit telling confirming to us that what we are reading is the word of God). When we strive to listen to and obey the Spirit, all the way from the conscience level (light of Christ) to straight up revelation, where ever we are along that spectrum, spiritually speaking, we are exorcising that part of faith that we have been given. By exorcising that gift of faith it gets strengthened and the Spirit gives us more of that gift, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little.

The greatest prophets and people who performed huge and great miracles weren't doing anything extra special besides just hearing and obeying the Holy Spirit to a higher degree than those who don't exorcise that particle of faith of which they have been given, by hearing and obeying what light they have been given thus far.

When we put our trust in God, we are begging for His guidance. We are often on our knees in prayer... pleading... even fasting at times. God answers prayers, often times in ways we don't expect, or with different answers than we expect. Sometimes we assume that we aren't getting answers because we aren't listening to Him properly, but instead are expecting some answer in a preconceived way that isn't how He wants to do in this particular circumstance. Even if He has done it a certain way in the past, it doesn't mean He won't want to do it differently in order to teach a little extra the next time. Humility is the key, which just means being teachable. We are here trying our best to follow Him in an effort to get to know Him, the way He thinks and acts, not necessarily the way we think He should be thinking and acting.

I think the key lies in, "holding to the rod," or obeying the word of God, to the best of our ability, repenting when we fail to do so. This will automatically offer that perfect balance. Just my two cents worth anyway.

[CV75]

42 minutes ago, JLHPROF said:

The scriptures are not contradictory but come at this topic from both sides.  (Prov 3, James 2, Matt 21, Mark 11)
I am wondering if anyone has found a way to a doctrinally sound and scripturally valid middle ground?  And where that middle ground might be?

I think the application of either side is situational, both by way of circumstance and our level of personal development. The situation is the middle ground, and always where we find God meeting us. I think it is the point in the Doctrine of Christ (2 Nephi 31) where we press forward (or begin to press forward) with a steadfastness in Christ, a greater brightness of hope than before, and a greater love of God and of all men than before.

[JLHPROF]

11 minutes ago, waveslider said:

I think we need to remember the Faith is a gift of the Spirit:

"8  For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9  To another faith by the same Spirit......"
1 Corinthians 12:8-9

This is true.
But faith is also considered a requirement for many blessings.
Making a gift that not all receive a requirement seems a little bit contradictory.

[bluebell]

I've been learning that faith (trust) in God is just the ability to say 'thy will be done' and mean it, no matter what His will is.  A "come what may and love it" mentality.  I struggle with it every day.

Some quotes that have helped me with my ongoing struggles:

~Here the Savior reminds us that faith, no matter how strong it is, cannot produce a result contrary to the will of him whose power it is. The exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is always subject to the order of heaven, to the goodness and will and wisdom and timing of the Lord. That is why we cannot have true faith in the Lord without also having complete trust in the Lord’s will and in the Lord’s timing.

~The conviction that the Lord knows more than we do and that he will answer our prayers in the way that is best for us and for all of his other children is a vital ingredient of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This important reality is beautifully described in an experience recorded in Elder John H. Groberg’s recent book, In the Eye of the Storm. He describes a lesson he learned as a young missionary traveling on a sailboat in the Tongan islands.

“We would always pray for protection, success, and good seas and wind to take us to our destination. Once I asked the Lord to bless us with a good tail wind so we could get to Foa quickly. As we got under way, one of the older men said, ‘Elder Groberg, you need to modify your prayers a little.’

“‘How’s that?’ I replied.

“‘You asked the Lord for a tail wind to take us rapidly to Foa. If you pray for a tail wind to Foa, what about the people who are trying to come from Foa to Pangai? They are good people, and you are praying against them. Just pray for a good wind, not a tail wind.’

“That taught me something important. Sometimes we pray for things that will benefit us but may hurt others. We may pray for a particular type of weather, or to preserve someone’s life, when that answer to our prayer may hurt someone else. That’s why we must always pray in faith, because we can’t have true, God-given faith in something that is not according to His will. If it’s according to His will, all parties will benefit. I learned to pray for a good wind and the ability to get there safely, not necessarily a tail wind” (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1993, p. 175).

~ If we think we have faith, we should ask, faith in whom or faith in what?....Others have faith in faith, which is something like relying on the power of positive thinking or betting on the proposition that we can get what we want by manipulating the powers within us.

I hope the different colors will make it easier to separate one quote from another.  The two in green are from Elder Oaks.  The blue is from John Groberg.

[waveslider]

27 minutes ago, JLHPROF said:

This is true.
But faith is also considered a requirement for many blessings.
Making a gift that not all receive a requirement seems a little bit contradictory.

Yes, faith is a requirement. You have to ask yourself why not all receive that gift of faith? Is it because God won't allow some to get that gift? Or is it because we won't obey the laws that are, ".....irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—" (D&C 130:20)? If we are obeying the Holy Spirit are we not going to be led to obey those things, that bring the blessings of gaining faith? We do know that, ".....the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7)

That said I don't think there is any gift of the Spirit that the faithful and obedient won't receive, eventually, even if it isn't in this mortal life. I do know that we will gain each and every single gift of the Spirit that will be needed for us to perform all of the plan that our Father has laid out for us while in this mortal life, if we just hear and obey His voice. I think Lehi's vision outlines our trek through life perfectly and holding to that, "iron rod," is the very key if we want to stay on Christ's path. I think we miss the mark if we only focus on the hoops we have to jump through, instead of focusing on recognizing and discerning His voice from amongst our own inner voice and the voices of adversity, while choosing to obey His voice and repenting each and every time that we fail to obey that voice. In this way we are guided through all the hoops that are necessary.

[JLHPROF]

35 minutes ago, bluebell said:

~ If we think we have faith, we should ask, faith in whom or faith in what?....Others have faith in faith, which is something like relying on the power of positive thinking or betting on the proposition that we can get what we want by manipulating the powers within us.

Wow, this one is fascinating.
Have to think on this for a bit.

[Buckeye]

BB is correct to point out that faith must be placed in something. There's no such thing as faith in the abstract. So for me, I've never had a problem not having faith in chipmunks ... they are completely untrustworthy. But I do have complete faith that the sun will rise, that general conference will start exactly at 10:00 am mountain standard time, and that President Uchtdorf will give at least one awesome talk.

As to faith in God, I don't struggle so much with placing faith in His word as I do with confidently concluding that the word is actually His.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Buckeye

[JLHPROF]

Just now, Buckeye said:

As to faith in God, I don't struggle so much with placing faith in His word as I do with confidently concluding that the word is actually His.

So the reverse of my issue. 
I know that God has said he would answer our prayers and that statement comes from him.  I have a much harder time trusting that he will.

[Buckeye]

13 minutes ago, JLHPROF said:

So the reverse of my issue. 
I know that God has said he would answer our prayers and that statement comes from him.  I have a much harder time trusting that he will.

I do get plenty of support and encouragement from Him. But I struggle to confidently say "this is His word," especially when that word is filtered through men who, though probably better than me, are still fallible. 

[bluebell]

47 minutes ago, JLHPROF said:

Wow, this one is fascinating.
Have to think on this for a bit.

I'm sure I have made the mistake of believing that if I believed something would happen strongly enough that it would happen, and thinking that was faith. 

[CV75]

1 hour ago, JLHPROF said:

I know that God has said he would answer our prayers and that statement comes from him.  I have a much harder time trusting that he will.

 

55 minutes ago, Buckeye said:

I do get plenty of support and encouragement from Him. But I struggle to confidently say "this is His word," especially when that word is filtered through men who, though probably better than me, are still fallible. 

I think that loving His children is the solution to both these struggles. Things come into perspective, and we feel free to trust both God and His children, the actual object of faith being the word that comes to us through either, since we cannot abide God's presence or perfection directly and we can easily see His servants' imperfection.

[Eek!]

 

5 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

Faith has always been hard for me - not the faith of belief, but the faith of trust.
I know there is a God but understanding the principles upon which he will help me is something I have studied and studied but have yet to find a solid doctrinal conclusion...

The scriptures are not contradictory but come at this topic from both sides.  (Prov 3, James 2, Matt 21, Mark 11)
I am wondering if anyone has found a way to a doctrinally sound and scripturally valid middle ground?  And where that middle ground might be?

My own trust in God is not really based on doctrine or scripture.  

My paradigm shift started when I had children of my own, and realized that there was nothing they could ever do that would make me shut my door and say, "I never want to see you again."  Nor is there any amount of time after which I would say, "You had your chance, and now it's too late."

Of course it's not hard to find scriptures which contradict the above line of thinking, but I cannot imagine that I'm a better dad than God.    

So you may have to step outside of the doctrinal/scriptural "box" and reason things out on your own, starting with a few basic premises.  You might include these:  God is good, God is fair, and God is no respecter of persons.

(We are accustomed to man-made "laws", wherein the law IS the actual words written, subject to a court's interpretation.  On the other hand God's "laws" are eternal principles, which are probably incompletely and inadequately described by the words that are written down, so imo we do well to start with some correct basic premises to guide our interpretations.) 

Let's run through an example:  The First and Great commandment is, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  I believe this implies that it is completely safe for us to trust in God.  Let me explain:

Can you completely love someone that you do not trust?  No.  Can you completely love someone that you fear?  No.  Does God give us commandments that are impossible to keep?  No.

So IF we can reasonably be expected to love God completely, THEN fear of God and lack of trust in Him would be out of place.  So even if we don't know all the details yet, the First and Great commandment implies that we have nothing to fear from God.  

(Yes I know that "fear of God is the beginning of wisdom", but it's ONLY the beginning.  The higher truth is:  Perfect love casts out all fear.)

As far as trust goes, we cannot assume God will do what we want (unless we know that our will is perfectly aligned with His, and imo that's a long shot), but we can assume God will do what He wants, and I'm pretty sure He wants us back, and is smart enough to figure out how to accomplish that.  

Just scratching the surface here.

Imo, ime, ymmv, etc.  

 

Edited September 20, 2016 by Eek!

[Calm]

"fear of God" mostlikely meant what we mean as "awe".  

[Glenn101]

I believe that so many of us that believe in the requirement for faith, believe in Jesus Christ, in our Heavenly Father, in the restored Gospel, are also a bit like Peter when he he was walking on water to meet the Christ. He was going great until he started thinking about it. It is impossible to walk on water, he begins to think, then lo and behold, he sinks as his faith is denolished by reason.

I had a friend once who had the displeasure of managing to get his right forearm liberally covered with the oil from a poison ivy plant. Most reactions to poison ivy involves a lot of itching and scratching, but he was particularly sensitive and the affected area was inflicting some pretty intense pain. He asked for and received a priesthood blessing. He reported that the pain went away pretty much right after the anointing was sealed. The friend then was taken to the nearby Naval infirmary to receive treatment. On the way, he kept looking at his arm, still and angry red and swollen. He said to himself, "This arm really looks like it should be hurting me." And, he reported, that it almost immediately began to hurt again. He received treatment at the infirmary and some pain pills.

I do not have the faith whereby I could unflinchingly enter into a blazing furnace and believe that I would come out unscathed. The same goes for a lion'd den. although any lion that would deign to eat a tough old turkey such as I would probably suffer an acute bout of indigestion.

Glenn

[Eek!]

10 minutes ago, Calm said:

"fear of God" mostlikely meant what we mean as "awe".  

Yes!

This is an example of the wording that we have being an inadequate representation of the eternal principle behind it.  

[Tacenda]

I never needed faith before my crisis of faith. I just knew, maybe that's why that assurance was dashed, and now have to try everyday to have faith, which is not coming easy.

 

[Okrahomer]

5 hours ago, Buckeye said:

BB is correct to point out that faith must be placed in something. There's no such thing as faith in the abstract. So for me, I've never had a problem not having faith in chipmunks ... they are completely untrustworthy. But I do have complete faith that the sun will rise, that general conference will start exactly at 10:00 am mountain standard time, and that President Uchtdorf will give at least one awesome talk.

As to faith in God, I don't struggle so much with placing faith in His word as I do with confidently concluding that the word is actually His.

I really like what you say here.  I struggle with the same thing, especially when I'm the one giving voice to "the words."  

One small correction:  We won't actually "fall back" to Standard time until 6 November--and we will "spring forward" again on 12 March.  I have to remind myself that Daylight Savings Time was extended by 4 weeks (2 weeks for each change) in 2007.  Prior to that, we would often be reminded during the Saturday evening General Priesthood Session to adjust our clocks before going to bed.  That all changed a few years ago.

[Storm Rider]

I think bluebell in her first post summed up much of what I believe about faith.  I seldom ask for a specific blessing - "God, please do this thing for me" as in almost never and have not for decades.  Long ago I came to a conclusion that God is not my secret genie in the bottle and if I rubbed his tummy enough I would receive whatever I wanted.  

My relationship with my Father in Heaven is based on being subservient to his will.  I will accept whatever comes my way and find joy in it.  That does not mean that I don't become frustrated or even feeling hurt at times, but what I receive is God's will.  I have noticed that this may cause me to be more independent or much less independent depending on the situation.  God is trying to do something with us in this life.  When we give our life to him then we are assured this life will be a refiner's fire until he is done with us.  The challenge is to have complete joy and happiness in whatever life he gives us.  

[bluebell]

9 hours ago, Storm Rider said:

I think bluebell in her first post summed up much of what I believe about faith.  I seldom ask for a specific blessing - "God, please do this thing for me" as in almost never and have not for decades.  Long ago I came to a conclusion that God is not my secret genie in the bottle and if I rubbed his tummy enough I would receive whatever I wanted.

My relationship with my Father in Heaven is based on being subservient to his will.  I will accept whatever comes my way and find joy in it.  That does not mean that I don't become frustrated or even feeling hurt at times, but what I receive is God's will.  I have noticed that this may cause me to be more independent or much less independent depending on the situation.  God is trying to do something with us in this life.  When we give our life to him then we are assured this life will be a refiner's fire until he is done with us.  The challenge is to have complete joy and happiness in whatever life he gives us.  

That's an interesting perspective. I completely agree about having to get to the point where we don't see God has a genie (or a vending machine, where when we put all the right change in our blessing is dispensed).  Do you ever worry though that you aren't receiving blessings that it is God's will to grant, but that He requires us to ask for first?  

(I'm taking this from the Bible dictionary, which says under prayer "Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.")

[bluebell]

12 hours ago, Tacenda said:

I never needed faith before my crisis of faith. I just knew, maybe that's why that assurance was dashed, and now have to try everyday to have faith, which is not coming easy.

 

There's a Yiddish proverb that says "A man is not honest simply because he never had a chance to steal."  Maybe it' the same with faith.  Maybe we don't ever really have faith until it is tested.

[hope_for_things]

21 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

To quote Michael McLean:

• Which part is mine?
  And God, which part is yours?
  Could you tell me one more time,
  I'm never quite sure.
  
  And I won't cross the line
  like I have before.
  But it gets so confusing some times.
  Should I do more, or trust the divine?
  Please, just help me define which part's mine,
  and which part is yours.

I was hoping we could have some discussion on the application of faith.  Faith has always been hard for me - not the faith of belief, but the faith of trust.
I know there is a God but understanding the principles upon which he will help me is something I have studied and studied but have yet to find a solid doctrinal conclusion.
I am familiar with the old statement "Pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you" but I was hoping for a little more than a catchphrase.

I have family members who are experts at "placing things in God's hands" and I have family members who are very much "God helps those who help themselves" people.
The scriptures are not contradictory but come at this topic from both sides.  (Prov 3, James 2, Matt 21, Mark 11)
I am wondering if anyone has found a way to a doctrinally sound and scripturally valid middle ground?  And where that middle ground might be?

I love that Michael McLean song, thanks for the reminder.  He's been fairly public about some of his faith crisis and journey over the years.  I think its great when he shares the authentic confusion that many of us experience in this life.   

I'm at a place in my life where I regularly question the existence of God.  Yet somehow I still live my life as if there is something there in the unseen world that connects all of us, and I call this God.  I frequently trust my intuition on things, and at times I'm in awe about how well things work out thanks to my trusting this intuition.  I feel like I'm being faithful when I let go sometimes and just step forward into the void not knowing for sure if there is something to catch my foot as it falls.  (I love that scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)

At other times, I feel like my intuition leads me astray.  For example I got an idea in my head that I should refinance my home loan and consolidate some debt into one loan.  I spent almost 2 months working on this, comparing quotes, haggling with loan companies and came up with the absolute best refinance option.  It made a lot of sense long term financially.  But then I got to thinking about it the weekend before we signed, and after talking to my wife and thinking through our short term goals, we cancelled the loan, and I was out some money for the appraisal.  Such a weird experience, but I felt so right about it at first, and then when it came right down to it, I changed my mind and it didn't feel right anymore, but I had to swallow my pride and accept that I wasted a few hundred $$ and many hours of work over the past 2 months in the process.

Maybe that doesn't make sense, but this is the gospel in real world scenarios in my life.  It functions with my parenting, my relationships, and my decisions at home and at work.  I don't think of God as a glorified human anymore, and logically I can't prove the existence of God to my logical reasoning brain, however, I still live my life as if God is guiding me.  I still make decisions with a sense of wanting to do what feels right, and I feel like I'm just as in tune to those feelings as I was earlier living a more orthodox Mormon life.  Its a part of me, I can't deny, but I don't fully understand.  

I feel like I'm faithful to this part of me because I listen, but I don't accept every feeling as if that feeling were divine knowledge that will lead to the correct outcome.  I try to use my feelings as part of the equation, but not the ultimate solution.  Not sure if that makes any sense, but I wanted to share.  

 

[bluebell]

6 minutes ago, hope_for_things said:

At other times, I feel like my intuition leads me astray.  For example I got an idea in my head that I should refinance my home loan and consolidate some debt into one loan.  I spent almost 2 months working on this, comparing quotes, haggling with loan companies and came up with the absolute best refinance option.  It made a lot of sense long term financially.  But then I got to thinking about it the weekend before we signed, and after talking to my wife and thinking through our short term goals, we cancelled the loan, and I was out some money for the appraisal.  Such a weird experience, but I felt so right about it at first, and then when it came right down to it, I changed my mind and it didn't feel right anymore, but I had to swallow my pride and accept that I wasted a few hundred $$ and many hours of work over the past 2 months in the process.

I think sometimes God's inspiration leads us to do something but it's not for the reasons that we are asking to do it or for the reasons we assume He wants us to do it.  And so when it doesn't turn out the way we think it was going to it really messes us up, spiritually speaking.  (I'm not saying that's true with your experience, just speaking in general).

I read a blog post yesterday from Al Fox and she talked about a man that she was engaged to previously to marrying her husband.  She had prayed and felt it was the right thing to do (get engaged) and they had a date set and everything and then one day he told her that he usually dated skinny brunettes and felt he could do better than her and broke it off.  She was of course devastated in many ways and one of them was feeling like she must not have any idea what the spirit actually feels like if she felt He had told her to marry that guy.

Eventually she began to see how that whole trial completely changed who she was and her relationship with God and now she sincerely believes that God did in fact tell her to get engaged to that guy, not because marrying Him was a good idea or going to work out but because she needed the learning and growth that would come from experiencing the trial that being engaged to him would be.

That really stood out to me.  Our view is so shortsighted and so narrow that sometimes I think we hear the Spirit, but still miss the point.  

[JLHPROF]

Sometimes I am sure my lack of faith is not an issue of God answering my prayers but purely an issue of comfort as I make my decision and try to trust God.
Joseph Smith said:

It is harder to act in faith when cannot find the comfort and security that Joseph had here.  Fear and anxiety and faith cannot exist in the same heart.
And yet despite the faith he had here even Joseph became discouraged and said  "O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?"

Even our Savior who had knowledge and not just faith said "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?".  He knew, not just had faith, but actually knew God was watching over him and had the perfect love that casts out fear.

So acting in faith actually becomes far easier than having faith.  For many like me it can be easier to act and wait for God to help than it is to actually feel as if God will help.
So where does the comforting  faith come from if not from our acting in faith?  Do we only have comfort when we have the spirit regardless of our faithfulness in action?

Just thinking out loud...

[hope_for_things]

18 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I think sometimes God's inspiration leads us to do something but it's not for the reasons that we are asking to do it or for the reasons we assume He wants us to do it.  And so when it doesn't turn out the way we think it was going to it really messes us up, spiritually speaking.  (I'm not saying that's true with your experience, just speaking in general).

I read a blog post yesterday from Al Fox and she talked about a man that she was engaged to previously to marrying her husband.  She had prayed and felt it was the right thing to do (get engaged) and they had a date set and everything and then one day he told her that he usually dated skinny brunettes and felt he could do better than her and broke it off.  She was of course devastated in many ways and one of them was feeling like she must not have any idea what the spirit actually feels like if she felt He had told her to marry that guy.

Eventually she began to see how that whole trial completely changed who she was and her relationship with God and now she sincerely believes that God did in fact tell her to get engaged to that guy, not because marrying Him was a good idea or going to work out but because she needed the learning and growth that would come from experiencing the trial that being engaged to him would be.

That really stood out to me.  Our view is so shortsighted and so narrow that sometimes I think we hear the Spirit, but still miss the point.  

Thanks for sharing, I think you're right that we often can't explain or even understand the reasons that we are feeling prompted or inspired to make a choice.  I think there are things happening that we literally don't have words to express, or that our brains can't even sort out in language.  This doesn't mean that our feelings about something come from a divine source, or that we can separate the divine from the human, I think those are impossible tasks to do with any complete certainty. 

Another thing I've been learning about recently is how our brains work and how our thinking affects our biases and our perspectives.  An interesting podcast I listened to recently was talking about some studies that have been conducted around decision making and how when we are faced with a decision about two choices that if we are forced to decide between the two without any ability to change that decision later, that our brain will come up with reasons to believe that the decision we made was the correct decision.  As opposed to being presented with a choice between two things, but having an escape clause that allows us to change our mind later.  We actually are happier if we have no escape clause and are forced to make a choice without the option of changing our decision later. 

Check it out in case you're interested, the episodes are usually around 25 mins, very interesting stuff.  Episode # 42 Decide Already

http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510308/hidden-brain