Should You Trust Your Gut?

You may think it’s an overused cliché that doesn’t really line up with scripture. Yet how many times has your ‘gut’ indicated something was wrong and you ignored it? If you reflect on all those situations I bet you’d discover 90 percent of the time something really was wrong and you ignored it for one or more of the following reasons:

• You didn’t want to deal with the conflict involved in voicing or acting on your intuition.
• As a child you were taught to doubt your instincts or feelings because they made someone in the family uncomfortable.
• Denial – you may have wanted to ‘do it (or not do it) anyway.’
• You placed the opinions of others (and pleasing them) above your own.
• All of the above (as in my case).

I believe our instincts are God given. In fact, ignoring or stuffing them has actually interfered with my relationship with God, causing me to miss what He was trying to communicate altogether. In many instances my ‘gut instinct’ was buried so deep below layers of insecurity, denial, and ‘people pleasing’ that I didn’t realize alarm bells were sounding until it was too late – way too late; and the situation had exploded or I was already enmeshed with the person or circumstance.

Praying for wisdom and discernment has helped me recognize my instincts and stop doubting them; which has led to a deeper understanding of myself. Praying for the courage to act on them (or in some cases not act on them) has changed the nature of my relationship with God and others.

Making decisions is easier, and every day I feel less and less trapped inside someone else’s world.

1. Do you believe our ‘gut’ instincts were put there by God? Why or why not?
2. Have you ever ignored your gut? What happened?