Article February 5, 1996 Issue

A QUESTIONS & ANSWERS EXCHANGE

Are there questions you'd like to explore with other readers and with the editorial staff of the Christian Science Sentinel? This column offers a place for that exchange to happen. What's here isn't intended to give a definitive answer. The queries and the ideas spring from the heart, as we are walking side by side.

Q. How can you know that you are getting inspiration from God and not just making up what you'd like to believe?—from a reader in Massachusetts

A. Motive is important. So are honesty and humility. If one is honestly turning to God, humble enough to set aside one's most cherished plans, and wanting more than anything else to hear what God has to say, then one knows deep inside whether what is heard is one's own will or God's inspiration. A person who is deeply praying begins to distinguish the voice of God from the voices of the world. Also, God's answers are not fearful, do not harm another, and do not have a personal timetable attached. Such an answer would be a mixed message and indicates the need to remove through Christly love and obedience such mental static as fear, resentment, willful outlining, and so on.—from a reader in Tennessee

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