How Can I Know What God Wants Me To Do?

HOW CAN I KNOW WHAT GOD WANTS ME TO DO? by David Sper

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am walking with Christ. That is what my life is about. Each day, I want my life to reflect that I follow and believe in Christ. Part of that is making decisions in my life that honor and reflect God. It is difficult to live with uncertainty. That has nothing to do with being a Christian. Non-believers feel the same way. The difference for a Christian is that we trust in God to take care of us. Believe that His invisible hand both guides and supports us. That means that every day is a leap of faith. We walk supported by His invisible hands.



What I really, really love about being a Christian is knowing that God loves me for me. He made me into the unique person that I am for a reason. Why should he want to change that just because I gave my life to Him? He doesn’t want me to be a windup doll. He gave me a brain and the freedom of choice. But He also gave me guidelines for my life so that I could ‘live more abundantly’. If I live according to biblical principles overall, I can choose the direction my life takes. Sometimes, that’s where it gets hard. You can have two different paths that are God honoring, but one might work better for you than the other. How can you know what to do?



This booklet was very helpful. It’s quick, easy to read, and insightful. It doesn’t give you a laundry list of what you should do to make decisions. Instead, it gives guidelines.

I like the acronym they come up with for decision-making principles: GUIDE

G-Go to the Lord

U-Understand His Principles

I-Investigate Your Options

D-Discuss it With Others

E-Express Your Freedom



I think GUIDE is extremely helpful. That doesn’t mean that making decisions will always be easy. They won’t. Especially for a stone cold melancholy phlegmatic like myself. What that means is I am a worrier who has trouble making decisions because she wants to make the right decisions and dwells overly on every choice she does make. Instead of being at sea, I can at least look to these principles as a way to go through that painful decision-making process. At the end of it, I can feel some peace that I made a good decision.



I also liked the passage, “Quiet Nudges,” written by Philip Yancey. I can identify with what he’s talking about when he writes of seeing God’s guidance as he looked back on a tough part of his life. On looking back at my life, I have felt that instead of stumbling around in the dark, I was being lead down a twisted path, with God’s guiding hand on me, even when I felt most alone, most uncertain. It puts the whole leap of faith concept in perspective. We might feel like we’re walking alone, walking on thin air, but God knows and sees things deeper and farther than we ever will. And even if we fall, God can use that for our overall good and let something worthwhile come out of that process. Knowing that is a real blessing.



I received this booklet free from Our Daily Bread’s Discovery Series Bible Study, but it definitely proves its worth. If you can get a copy of this, I recommend it. If not, I think the GUIDE principles can still be helpful to you. And even without those, one thing I’d say to always remember as a Christian, good times or bad: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. And in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6. You might not know where you’re going, but you can trust that the Lord will get you there in the end.





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