Today I am reminded that the human heart is a deep and mysterious thing and it is impossible to know all of the thoughts and desires that are deep inside of another person. Unless you're God of course, who knows everything that is in our heart and even those things we try to hide from ourselves. As pastors, this makes the job of pastoring and taking care of people difficult. How do we help those when we do not truly know what is going on inside of them. How do we help those who do not even know what is going on inside of themselves? The task seems impossible, except of course by means of some sort of discernment that God grants us by the Holy Spirit.
This is a reminder to me that helping people is a much bigger task than the techniques that we learn in Seminary (as helpful and needed as those are), but it truly is a spiritual task that we have completely have to rely on the Spirit of God for. I guess that is why prayer is so important to the pastoral task. God, help us to listen to your Spirit and to discern how we can help those who come seeking.
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