Tag Archives: God’s Will

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The Person God Wants Me to Marry Is…

3 Questions Every Christian Should Ask Before Saying "I Do"

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Marriage is one of the big ones. Most decisions in life don’t come close to it for life-altering consequences. What to wear, what to eat, how fast to drive, even what job or career to pursue pales in comparison. The potential implications of this question are staggering: How do I know if God wants me to marry this person?

Make the wrong decision when it comes to marriage and it can leave a mark for your entire life — and beyond, really, as children deal with the aftermath for generations.

No pressure;  just pointing out what you already know if you are trying to figure out what God wants next for your life when it comes to getting married.

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The Seventh Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

We Won’t Hear God’s Voice if We’re Not in the Habit of Listening

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Have you ever faced a key life decision and wondered why God wasn’t giving you clear direction? I mean, how hard would it be for Him to rent a billboard or at least shoot you an e-mail to say, “Click here to know what to do next.”

Doesn’t God own the data on a thousand servers as much as He owns the cattle on a thousand hills? I confess that I have never needed any cattle, but I sure could have used an email with divine direction at key times in life.

When we don’t hear clear direction from God, why is it we always assume it is God’s fault?

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The Sixth Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

How Serious Are You about Talking with God?

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I came across an intriguing but sad comment by a reader recently. He said that he once asked God for direction, but God didn’t answer. So he had to make his own way, and it hadn’t turned out well. I couldn’t help but wonder if God had not answered or if this reader simply had not listened or not liked what he heard.

In fact, he had made some pretty serious, even criminal mistakes, all of which he blamed on God for not responding to his request for direction.

I know in my own faith walk, when I choose poorly, it is often the result of trusting in my own wisdom instead of waiting for and insisting on an answer from God.

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The Fifth Secret You Need to Know About God’s Will

If We Trust God with Eternity, Why Do We Worry about Today?

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Ask just about any Christian if he or she trusts God to take them to heaven to live with Him forever, and you’ll get an immediate and resounding yes. So why do those same Christians – myself included – struggle to trust Him with all the stuff in between here and now and there and then?

Paying bills, making life decisions, navigating relationships, avoiding temptation – you name it, we worry about it. We fret about stuff we have no control over. We lose sleep trying to make sure we’ve thought of every contingency. We exhaust ourselves working to get just one more thing done or to make a few dollars more.

And then we say we trust God with the fate of our souls. Hmmm…..

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The Fourth Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

Are You Using What God Has Given You?

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Panic! It’s what we do when we don’t know what to do. It’s understandable. It’s common. But it doesn’t have to happen when we don’t know what God wants us to do next.

The fourth secret in this series of posts sharing 7 secrets we need to know about God’s will is one I learned — and continue to learn — from coming face to face with uncertainty every day. My first instinctive reaction almost every time, no matter how many times God has provided and led me in the past, is to panic and try to figure it all out on my own.

Maybe I’m the only one to fall into this trap of self-reliance. But I doubt it. When we’re face to face with adversity, our worry clouds our view. Panic sets in. And we tend to miss what is right in front of us — God.

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The Third Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

Why Being "Not Sure" May Be a Very Good Thing

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I don’t like not knowing what God wants next.  I am wired to perform at my best when I have a plan in place, a structured schedule, and plenty of margin to account for unexpected events. But my quest for certainty often presents a barrier to my relationship with God, because living by faith requires uncertainty.

If you are at all like me, you spend a lot of time and energy trying to get to a place that feels secure. I want to know where the money is coming from, what life direction I should take (or not take), and what I am forgetting to do—before it’s too late.

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The Second Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

Do You Know Where to Start?

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When you’re trying to figure out God’s will for your life, where do you start? I shared seven questions each of us should ask to figure out What God Wants Us to Do Next here. This post is the second in a series of seven in which I share some secrets I’ve learned the hard way about discerning God’s will for your life.

In the previous post, I shared Secret #1 — If you don’t expect to hear God’s voice, you won’t attempt to listen. 

If you don’t expect to hear God’s voice, you won’t attempt to listen. #7Secrets

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Secret #2 comes from an understanding of how God led Moses and the Israelites when confronted by the challenge of the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. And from what we learned from selling our house and stepping to the unknown with six kids in tow.

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The First Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

Do You Actually Expect to Hear from God?

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If you’re a Christian struggling with a decision right now, you may be asking a lot of questions about what God wants you to do next. But are you actually expecting to get answers or just going through the motions? This post is the first of seven in which I share some secrets I have learned about discerning God’s will for our lives when Scripture does not give us clear direction.

In my book A Story Worth Telling, I share the story of how we decided to move to Atlanta after nearly four decades of living in Northeast Ohio.  I had sensed a pull in the direction of Atlanta for well over a month before I even mentioned it, first to my wife and then to my life coach Dick Savidge (I highly recommend him if you are in need of Christ-centered life-coaching.)

I’m not one to naturally put a lot of confidence in feelings. It’s just not how God has wired me.

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Do You Make This Common Mistake in Your FaithWalk?

Why Waiting for Certainty Could Take a While

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I would prefer to know how life will turn out before I choose my next step. If you’re like me, it’s easy to make a common mistake in pursuit of a life that is pleasing to God.

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be unpacking the process of knowing God’s will for your life in a series of posts on the topic. I get questions from readers all the time who are trying to figure out what God wants them to do next.

My free eBook What God Wants You to Do Next: 7 Questions to Discover God’s Best for Your Life has been downloaded by people all over the world, so I know trying to figure out God’s direction is a common experience no matter where you live. I’ve heard from new friends as close as Atlanta and as far away as New Guinea and Ghana asking for advice on how to tell the difference between what God wants and what I want.

Although there is more to unpack in answering this question–something I’ll be doing in a series of posts coming soon–we need to be careful not to make a common mistake when asking this question and others about finding our life direction.

We should not assume we can ever reach a place in this life where we are free from uncertainty about what God wants us to do next.

The Apostle Paul describes our journey as a faith-walk, not a sight-walk. It’s not a historical tour complete with gripping narration, bronze plaques, and souvenir shops. It is a dynamic journey into the unknown with the One who knows and sustains all things.

The Christian walk is not a documentary filmed after the fact. It is an ongoing process which requires us to depend on God for direction as it unfolds in real time. Someday we’ll have the luxury of hindsight, but not now.

We make a mistake if we expect the Christian walk to be anything other than an exercise in ever-increasing dependence on God. Not only is uncertainty not abnormal, it is the expected way of life for all who follow Christ. We live in tension between what is already accomplished and what is being accomplished, between what is and what is to come.

“Though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16) A metamorphosis is taking place within us. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the process may become uncomfortable at times. In fact, we should expect it.

Remember this: Faith itself is a temporary thing. “For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) One day faith will give way to sight, and all uncertainty will cease. Until then, the process is working something far greater within us, causing us to lean into our Savior for direction and guidance as we walk paths we’ve never known before.

By all means, seek clarity from God, but don’t let uncertainty stop you from moving forward. Get used to saying, I don’t know all the answers, but I’m taking the next step anyway. 

Embrace uncertainty as an opportunity to discover greater clarity about what matters most. And your story will become better for it. 

Embrace uncertainty as an opportunity to discover greater clarity about what matters most.

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SPECIAL: I’d love your input for the series of posts and additional resources I am preparing to help you discover what God wants you to do next. If you are not already an email subscriber, click here to do so now and be included in a brief survey I’ll send your way. Thanks!

Question: Do you sometimes make the mistake of thinking your uncertainty is weird or not normal for a Christ follower? How might your present uncertainty be an opportunity for you to grow closer to God? Share your thoughts by clicking here.