How many of us desire to make wise decisions? To do business with the right people or marry the right person or buy the right house or go to the right school or choose the right career.. I would think it’s safe to say that we all do. For some reason though, we seem to make a lot more mistakes than wise choices. Why is it so easy for us to make a complete mess of our lives? I think part of the reason comes from a misunderstanding of how the Lord leads us.
We know that God wants to guide us (psalm 25) and we know that He has our best interests in mind (Jeremiah 29:11). To get the wisdom and understanding we need to make wise choices, we need to learn how God leads.. And as always, we should look to the Bible for hints.
Potentially the most important lesson to learn is that God leads us step by step. God will never point out a destination and just let us go for it. He has always wanted to be with us every step of the way. Here are a few verses..
- “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord …” Psalm 37:23
- “O Lord, I know the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” Jeremiah 10:23
- “Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.” Psalm 119:133
- “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9
Look at how the Lord led the Israelites out of Egypt. This Old Testament example gives us special insight into how God leads.. Numbers 9:15-23 – “On the day the tabernacle, the tent of the covenant law, was set up, the cloud covered it. From evening till morning the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire. That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire. Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. At the Lord’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord’s order and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the Lord’s command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. At the Lord’s command they encamped, and at the Lord’s command they set out. They obeyed the Lord’s order, in accordance with his command through Moses.”
The craziest thing for me in this story is that the Israelites would stop at each place for an undetermined period of time.. sometimes for a few nights, sometimes for a year! Apparently if God is going to lead us, we are to wait on the Lord.
Our problem is that we get antsy. We see a good opportunity and we think “I can handle this” and that is when disaster strikes. We think that if we aren’t moving we are wasting time. To us, it is a race to get to the “promised land” but to God the process is more important.
God wants to direct each step, when we go and when we stop, because He wants to teach us things along the way (primarily patience and trust). He does not just point in a direction and set us free to get there on our own; doing so would remove Him from our daily lives and if I’ve learned anything it’s that God wants to be involved in our lives!
Relying on God also keeps us humble. I imagine that if God freed the Israelites from the Egyptians and just pointed them in the direction of the promised land, they would have forgotten that God did anything to help them and that they freed themselves by their own strength!
We get ourselves into trouble so often because we don’t know how to wait. We don’t trust that God has our best interest in mind. And so we resolve to take control; “all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way…” (Isaiah 53:6). When we turn to our own way, we make mistakes.. There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death (Proverbs 14:12). A lot of the pain we go through in life is self-inflicted!
If you have waited and waited and never heard anything from the Lord, take it as a wake-up call. Do you really know Him? Jesus says in John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Have you really sought the Lord’s opinion on what direction you should take and are you willing to act on His guidance? If you really believe in Jesus, you have access to the mind of God (how insane is that?) through the Holy Spirit. And actually listening to the spirit is proof that you believe in Jesus. “For as many are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).
The Holy Spirit wants to act as a guide for us just like the pillar of fire was a guide for the Israelites in the desert.. if we will let Him. That sounds great to us until we realize that being led by God means giving Him control of EVERY part of our lives. God knows that mistakes from certain areas of our lives bleed into other areas. So if we only ask Him for direction in regards to our relationships but make our own decisions in regards to finances, it won’t take long for before our financial blunders begin to affect our relationships.
Proverbs 3:6 says “In all your ways acknowledge/submit to Him [the Lord], and He will make your paths straight.” The key word in this verse is All and it is perhaps the key to understanding why so many of our lives are not straight. To be honest with you. This is a really hard thing to do. In theory it is simple; just ask the Lord what He thinks. In practice it is much harder. A lot of times we think “oh this is such a small decision, I don’t need to trouble the Lord with this..” or “I don’t have time to wait on the Lord, I have to make a decision right now!”
It is in our nature to want to make our own decisions. We want the freedom to make our own decisions and God’s protection from harm if our decisions to be the wrong one. But God doesn’t work that way. True wisdom is not knowing how to make all of your decisions. It is resolving to be led by the Lord.
Next week I will share a practical guideline that I learned from Chip Ingram for discerning God’s specific will for our lives!
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