The Challenge of Discerning God's Leading

Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, August 12. 2025

Proper 14, the week of the ninth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrase for reflection from today’s reading:

12When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13Then Paul answered, ‘What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ 14Since he would not be persuaded, we remained silent except to say, ‘The Lord’s will be done.’

You will find the full text of today’s Acts reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary (BCP, 978)

AM Psalm 97, 99, [100]; PM Psalm 94, [95]

2 Samuel 14:1-20; Acts 21:1-14; Mark 10:1-16

Today we celebrate the Feast of  Florence Nightingale. (See below.)

David’s Reflections

In today’s Epistle reading, we find Luke’s narrative of Paul’s determined journey to Jerusalem.  Twice in this passage others in the larger Christian community discourage him from going, citing the risks of ill treatment from those alienated by Paul’s inclusive stance toward nonJews in his missionary ventures.  In both cases, his brothers and sisters make a strong case against his going to Jerusalem, feeling that they have the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  Verse 4 says that they warned him “Through the Spirit,” language which may point to an utterance from a prophet in an ecstatic state.

Luke presents Paul as driven by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.  He hears the warnings, grieves at the anguish of his fellow believers, and persists in his belief that God is leading him to Jerusalem.  We, the readers, are not quite sure why Paul has this sense of urgency;  we learn that, not from Acts, but from Paul’s letters.  Passages like  1 Corinthians 16, 2 Corinthians 1, 7-9;  Romans 15, tell us that Paul had decided personally to take an offering of money for the relief of serious deprivation among Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.

Paul’s unique mission made this journey especially urgent;  he had been focusing on sharing the Christian message of salvation with people outside Judaism and he tells us in his letters that he had not always kept strict Jewish dietary rules (see 1 Corinthians 9). His association in community with nonJewish people, regarded by the strictly pious as unclean, rendered him unclean in their understanding.  Those activities had alienated him from some Jewish Christians and from others outside the church in the Jewish community.

We learn from his letters that he believed delivering this relief offering personally, an offering gathered among nonJewish believers for the relief of Jewish Christian poverty, would have the effect of more fully uniting the Jewish and non-Jewish wings of the church.  (See Romans 15:22-33.)

One could reflect on this radically nonpolitical stance in Paul’s letters regarding money—not withholding money from those with whom one disagrees but giving all the more to further the mission of the church in the world. Paul regarded money not as an instrument of power, a means of constraining others and elevating oneself about others; rather, he regarded money as a means of service (See 2 Corinthians 8-9 for the fuller expression of his thought on this.)

But, rather than expanding on that crucial theme, I am struck with the struggle in the Acts account that discerning God’s leadership involves.  People who loved Paul, led by the Spirit, discouraged him from a course of action. Paul, feeling driven by the Spirit, persisted in that course of action.  What window might we have opened here by Acts into the spiritual life of the late first century Christian communities? Sincerely committed people in this conversation both felt constrained by the Spirit. How can the leadership of God be discerned in such a moment?

Each of us experience God’s presence and leading differently. Over the years, I’ve found that the core principles of Jesus’ teaching, the recurring inner urge of the Spirit, the counsel of positive, adventurous Christian friends, and the lessons of experience have clustered into a sense of the right way to go. I’ve sometimes resisted that course for a season. It took two years for the recurring urges of the Spirit and the counsel of friends, and the feedback of a gifts assessment to overcome my resistance to serving as the start up priest for a new church.

When we seek to discern where God might be in a decision, we certainly do need one another’s insight.  Yet, in the end, it lies with the individual faced with the decision to determine where God’s Spirit is taking them.  We can solicit the wisdom of those we trust, but we cannot substitute dependence on that wisdom for direct dependence on our sense of God’s leading.  We can get clarification and insight from those discerning with us but we then must bring that to bear and depend on the persistent, recurring sense of what is right, where our sense of rightness and “oughtness” takes us. Once we know, we cannot be dissuaded even by those who believe they have a word from God. The Paul of Acts was not.

Cistercian monk, poet, and prophetic writer Thomas Merton, in one of my favorite books of his, offers this now oft-repeated and poignant prayer.

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.  I do not see the road ahead of me.  I cannot know for certain where it will end.  Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.  And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.  And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.  therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.  I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” +

+Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude (Boston: Shambhala, 1983), p. 89.

Collect of the Day, Proper 14, the ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP 232)

Today we celebrate the Feast of Florence Nightingale (died 13 August 1910 CE).

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Florence_Nightingale.htm

Collect of the Feast of Florence Nightingale

O God, who gave grace to your servant Florence Nightingale to bear your healing love into the shadow of death: Grant to all who heal the same virtues of patience, mercy, and steadfast love, that your saving health may be revealed to all; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Collect for Peace

O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (BCP, 99)

For those in the Armed Forces of our Country

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 823)

A Prayer for Light

O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)

Daily Office Epistle, Acts 21:1-14

21When we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.* 2When we found a ship bound for Phoenicia, we went on board and set sail. 3We came in sight of Cyprus; and leaving it on our left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, because the ship was to unload its cargo there. 4We looked up the disciples and stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5When our days there were ended, we left and proceeded on our journey; and all of them, with wives and children, escorted us outside the city. There we knelt down on the beach and prayed 6and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.

7 When we had finished* the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais; and we greeted the believers* and stayed with them for one day. 8The next day we left and came to Caesarea; and we went into the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9He had four unmarried daughters* who had the gift of prophecy. 10While we were staying there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11He came to us and took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit, “This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.” ’ 12When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13Then Paul answered, ‘What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ 14Since he would not be persuaded, we remained silent except to say, ‘The Lord’s will be done.’

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer 

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer 

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer