My sister sent this meme to me recently. I mean…the Bible does say that God wants to protect his people like a hen gathers chicks beneath her wings. 🤷
“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge…” Psalm 91:4 (NIV)
Recently I received a question from a reader that I thought was an excellent question and worthy of sharing…
“How can we understand about God’s will for us? I’ve been struggling with the feeling that I may have done something out of His plan, and it saddens me so much.”
I think this is something that many of us have wondered about at one time or another. How do we understand God’s will, and what happens if we feel like we’ve missed it or did something opposed to His will? This week I’d like to discuss a couple of ways to understand God’s will, and also address what happens if we miss it.
First let me say, don’t beat yourself up too much if you feel like you’ve done something out of God’s will or plan. We ALL have “shoulda, coulda, woulda’s”. I screw up all the time! 🙂 The cool thing I’ve learned is that I can never mess up so much that God can’t fix it or even use it. God can turn anything around. I wrote about that in “Mistakes Can Turn Into Success” if you want to see an example in the Bible. Romans 8:28 says “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” So if you know you’ve messed up, repent (admit it, apologize and don’t do it again), and then ask God to fix it or work it out to be something good.
As for understanding God’s will, I’ve learned that the best way to learn and understand God’s will is by reading the Bible. His will is in His word.
Romans 12:2 says “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Other versions say “renewing your mind…to discern what God’s will is”. We renew our mind by reading the Bible.
God’s will or plan will NEVER contradict what the Bible says. For example, God’s will is never for someone to have an affair because the Bible clearly calls that adultery, which is a sin. Another example is that God’s will is never for somebody to go to hell because God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Unfortunately, I’ve heard both of these examples used as “God’s will”, but they both contradict scripture.
I’ve also learned that I can ASK God to show me what His will or His plan is. James 4:2 says, “You have not because you ask not.” That means if we want something we need to ask for it. The same can be true when trying to understand God’s will—We just need to ask.
So first I pray (i.e. God, please help me to understand your will and plan in this area…). Then secondly, I just spend some time reading the Bible. I usually just do this in my regular daily quiet times, and I try to pay attention to anything that stands out. A lot of times God will answer my question (usually not right away though) in some of the verses I read.
Do you ever have those times where you just really don’t know what to do and you need some direction from God? I’ve written about this a few times before…
Don’t understand? Stuck? Confused? Need direction? Ask God!
What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do
However, I’ve yet to put together a list of scriptures about direction from God until now. I always find scripture to be helpful because it’s a promise from God that I can stand on and/or His own word that I can pray directly back to him. Therefore today’s post will contain an abundance of Bible verses for you about direction from God to hopefully help you if you’re in a position of needing some guidance.
God doesn’t want us to be confused, and he wants to be confident in coming to him and to his Word (the Bible) with our needs and to ask for guidance or direction. When we ask God, He will guide us to the answer and direct our steps. The answer does not always come immediately, in our timetable (Habakkuk 2:3, 2 Peter 3:9, Isaiah 55:8-9). It’s important to remember that we need to listen for, expect an answer, and wait on an answer.
“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace…” 1 Corinthians 14:33a (ESV)
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God…” Hebrews 4:16a (NLT)
“The revelation of Your words brings light and gives understanding to the inexperienced.” Psalm 119:130 (HCSB)
“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:14 (NIV)
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV)
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:5 (NIV)
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 (NIV)
“I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4 (NIV)
“You do not have, because you do not ask.” James 4:2b (ESV)
“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:22 (NIV)
Do you ever just feel stuck, confused, or at a loss about something? I have found myself in situations like that on a number of occasions. Something that I’ve learned about God’s character though is that He doesn’t want us to be confused. He’s also not afraid of nor offended by our questions. God wants us to come confidently and boldly to him without being afraid. We shouldn’t be afraid to ask God about anything. He wants relationship with us.
“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace…” 1 Corinthians 14:33 (ESV)
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God…” Hebrews 4:16a (NLT)
We should feel free to ask God about something we don’t understand or about something that confuses us. We can ask God for direction when we don’t know what to do about a situation. Additionally, God wants us to approach him with our needs. Anytime we need an answer, we can and should ask God!
We are free to ask God anything we want. If we don’t understand something, we can ask God! It could even be something as simple as a question about the use of a word we don’t understand in the Bible. I shared before about a time when I decided to ask God about the meaning of the word “glory” when I heard the term used in the phrase “show me your glory”.
I didn’t understand what “glory” meant in that context nor how God could show it to us. So I prayed, “God, what does ‘glory’ mean? How can you ‘show me your glory’?” It was several months later before I got an answer, but it came nonetheless! I was listening to one of my favorite speakers, Beth Jones when she explained that “glory” meant God’s physical, tangible presence. Then I also saw the New Living Translation of Exodus 33:18 “Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.” This again answered my question that I had asked God several months prior. God was faithful to answer me, and He’s done it multiple times since.
More recently, I had an opportunity to ask God for some help and direction as I have struggled some with leading a group of teenage girls in our church youth group. Without getting into the whole story, for time’s sake, let’s just say that I’ve been acting in reluctant obedience for the past 9 months to this “call” to be a small group leader for our students!
Working with the student and/or children’s ministry is WAAAAAY out of my comfort zone! As I expected, I felt that I was in over my head when it came to dealing with younger maturity levels. On many nights our group was quite chaotic, and I don’t do chaos well. I was almost at a breaking point, when I decided to ask God for direction on how to handle this situation at which I felt that I was failing miserably.
What story??
I woke up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep with several things on my mind. I got up, made cup of hot tea, grabbed my journal, and started praying and asking God about some things. I determined that I would write down whatever “answers” came into my head. As I prayed and asked God for direction, the phrase “tell a story” came into my mind. So I wrote that down. Then underneath that I wrote “What story??”
I thought I’d do something a little different this week. Today, I thought I’d share a poem that I wrote back in April 2010. I wrote it for a close friend of mine who was really confused, struggling and making some poor life choices. I imagined that I was writing from their perspective and what they would pray. Most lines are based on several different scriptures (as I often do when writing prayers).
I’m very happy to report that this friend has made some monumental life changes and is now on the right track in their relationship with God! 🙂
By Tracy Robbins, 4/19/10 Continue reading
I recently received a question from a sweet reader on a previous post I had written, How To Use the Correct GPS–God Positioning System. This person felt like they might be on the wrong track and may have made a wrong decision about attending a design school. They were starting to doubt their original decision to attend. The essence of this reader’s question was basically, “What do you do when you don’t know what to do?”
I think that many people could relate to this question. So today I wanted to share my advice to this reader for when you don’t know what to do, in hopes that it may help others too. There are 3 simple steps that I find helpful in any decision-making process, large or small. I’ll jump right into your practical steps…
I thought this would be a fitting Funny Friday photo this week since we were just talking about getting lost and following directions and guidance. It’s no wonder I got lost in Texas with a road sign like this! The only thing missing is the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. 🙂
“Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.” Isaiah 30:21 (NLT)
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