Taken from Twelve Steps:
"It is reasonable and understandable that the question is often asked: 'Why can't we take a specific and troubling dilemma straight to God, and in prayer secure from Him sure and definite answers to our requests?'
This can be done, but it has hazards. Quite often, the thoughts that seem to come from God are not answers at all. They prove to be well-intentioned unconscious rationalizations. Anyone who tries to run his life rigidly by this kind of prayer, by this self-serving demand of God for replies, is a particularly disconcerting individual. To any questioning or criticism of his actions he instantly proffers his reliance upon prayer for guidance in all matters great or small. He may have forgotten the possibility that his own wishful thinking and the human tendency to rationalize have distorted his so-called guidance. With the best of intentions, he tends to force his own will into all sorts of situations and problems with the comfortable assurance that he is acting under God's specific direction. Under such an illusion, he can of course create great havoc without in the least intending it. . .This means that side by side with an earnest prayer there can be a certain amount of presumption and conceit in us. . .We discover that we do receive guidance for our lives to just about the extent that we stop making demands upon God to give it to us on order and on our terms."
"It is reasonable and understandable that the question is often asked: 'Why can't we take a specific and troubling dilemma straight to God, and in prayer secure from Him sure and definite answers to our requests?'
This can be done, but it has hazards. Quite often, the thoughts that seem to come from God are not answers at all. They prove to be well-intentioned unconscious rationalizations. Anyone who tries to run his life rigidly by this kind of prayer, by this self-serving demand of God for replies, is a particularly disconcerting individual. To any questioning or criticism of his actions he instantly proffers his reliance upon prayer for guidance in all matters great or small. He may have forgotten the possibility that his own wishful thinking and the human tendency to rationalize have distorted his so-called guidance. With the best of intentions, he tends to force his own will into all sorts of situations and problems with the comfortable assurance that he is acting under God's specific direction. Under such an illusion, he can of course create great havoc without in the least intending it. . .This means that side by side with an earnest prayer there can be a certain amount of presumption and conceit in us. . .We discover that we do receive guidance for our lives to just about the extent that we stop making demands upon God to give it to us on order and on our terms."
