Right now, you’re waiting on God.
You have a big decision to make, and you don’t want to move forward without His guidance. You pray daily; you search the Bible for direction. You want His approval. Otherwise, you might accidentally step outside of His will for your life. You don’t want to risk leaving Him behind, so you wait. Until you feel total certainty, you won’t move.
Stop that!
God hasn’t gone anywhere. He hears you. He sees you. He knows that you want to obey Him. He has marked you as His child. When He looks at you, He sees Jesus. He counts you spotless because of Jesus’ perfection, not yours. You can’t make a mistake too big for Him.
Go ahead and make hard choices.
You can’t make a mistake too big for God.
Peace vs. Faith
Somehow, I convinced myself that God would “give me peace” about the decision to get married. Even after attending premarital counseling, reading books together, praying incessantly on my parents’ hill, filling multiple journals with thoughts, and searching the Bible for wisdom, I didn’t know for sure that God wanted me to marry him–so I waited.
I waited for God to give me peace. My boyfriend attempted, gently, to suggest that God doesn’t always confirm His will ahead of time. Sometimes you take the leap first, and God provides the peace afterward. I couldn’t listen to him. The terror kept me from acknowledging the possibility that God would catch me when I jumped, not before.
God doesn’t always confirm His will ahead of time.
Faith vs. Peace
Trust means believing that God will do what He has promised. God never promised to make our decisions for us. He did promise to give us peace, but I think He might have been talking about something besides a continual state of calm–at least, for now. Jesus Himself experienced emotional anguish in the face of a difficult choice.
From my perspective at the time, God let me down. He never answered my desperate prayer for confidence. The day after I decided to move forward without Him, however, He opened my eyes to His presence from the beginning. I only saw Him in retrospect.
God never promised to make our decisions for us.
God absolutely directs your steps.
He promised to do that, but you won’t always notice Him at first. Yes, ask for His guidance. Yes, have conversations with wise Christians. Yes, search the Bible for wisdom. Then move forward, trusting Him to work all things for your good in the consequences.
Sometimes, when people say that they’re “waiting on God,” they simply mean that one of His promises hasn’t come true yet. That’s fine. Keep praying and believing–but don’t stand still. You don’t need to wait for Him because He’s already there!
Trust God to keep His Word, but don’t demand something He never offered.
Love,
The Reluctant Bride
The Reluctant Bride 