Paul, the great missionary apostle, did not always know exactly what God wanted him to do. There were times when he was hindered, opposed, delayed, and redirected. He knew his calling as an Apostle to the Gentiles. His burden was to reach those places where Christ had not yet been named, but he did not always know where or when.
So, when it comes to not knowing exactly what to do in certain situations, you are in good company! Your lack of certainty is not necessarily an indication that something is wrong with you or that God has abandoned you. But what do you do when fog descends upon your pathway? Here are seven ideas to get you started:
(1) Focus on doing what you know is God’s will for you now.
God’s will is more present than future. Ecclesiastes warns us against pursuing the exotic as a panacea for the dissatisfaction in life we are experiencing now. Solomon tried all of that—on a grander scale than almost any of us could ever afford—and concluded (to use New Testament terminology) that godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6).[i]
We all want God to guide us into a stellar future career but are slow to apply ourselves to our studies now. We expect God to show us whom we should marry but make no (or little) present effort to improve our interpersonal skills. Obeying God today is your preparation for doing His will tomorrow.
(2) Do not worry or borrow trouble from tomorrow.
Ask yourself whether your decision is one that you need to make right now. Sometimes we get all bent out of shape over something that we do not even need to know yet. Sufficient for today is the evil thereof (Matthew 6:34). If you are not sure what you should do, it may be that you do not need to know yet. Plan further. Pray more. Seek out another counselor. Go back through the relevant Scripture passages again. Wait. More often than not, when you need to know, God will be there to point the way.
(3) Rest confidently that God answers every prayer offered in Jesus’ name.
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He gave great encouragements to ask: Continue asking and it shall be given to you; be seeking and you shall find (Luke 11:9; my translation).
We must believe that our prayers are heard and that the results that follow are God’s answers to those prayers. Jesus, in His final instructions to His disciples before His crucifixion, reiterated to them the effectiveness of prayer in His name.
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 14:13-14).
Every prayer offered in His name will be answered. Why? Because praying in Jesus’ name is praying in accordance with His mission, His will, and His purposes. Praying in Jesus’ name is asking for what Jesus would ask for in your situation.
(4) Take comfort in the prayers of the Holy Spirit for you.
Romans 8:26-27 connects knowing God’s will with the subject of prayer, specifically the role of the Holy Spirit in interceding for us in times of personal distress.
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
When we are at a loss as to what to pray, we gain the Spirit as our Intercessor. This ought to bring us great solace in times of genuine bewilderment when the heavens seem silent and our pathway completely fogged over. He is praying for you according to the will of God, and because of who He is, you are not likely to miss the way.
(5) Do what is in your heart to do for the Lord.
This advice comes from the prophet Nathan’s words to King David when David expressed his desire to build a house for God: “Then Nathan said to the king, ‘Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you’” (2 Samuel 7:3). For a surrendered believer, the starting point for doing God’s will is often the desires of his or her heart because those desires have come from God (Psalm 37:4).
Ask yourself, “What do I most want to do for the Lord?” Through your desires (again, as a surrendered believer), God is often directing your path. Admittedly, the Lord sent Nathan the prophet back to David with some redirection, but David’s heart was the starting point.
(6) Take a risk and try.
Too often we hesitate to do what is in our hearts because we fear failure. We want an advance guarantee before proceeding. Will her parents say “yes”? Will the restaurant I open boom like Chick-fil-A? Will my pioneer church plant flourish? God, however, does not typically work by giving advance guarantees. In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good (Ecclesiastes 11:6).
Esther did not have complete assurance that she would succeed before King Ahasuerus. Mordecai reminded her of her providential position as queen and the duty implicit upon her to go before the king (Esther 4:14). Prayerfully, she accepted the risk and tried. She knew what she should do for her people, but she did not know what the result of her actions would be (v. 16).[ii]
(7) Work your plans, knowing that God is ordering your steps.
We can “take a risk and try” because of assurances like this: The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way (Psalm 37:23). Work your plans knowing that God is ordering your steps.
Paul did not wait around until he had discerned God’s will in all its particulars. When he wrote the book of Romans, for example, he had never been to Rome. He desired to go and fellowship with the believers there (Romans 1:11; 15:23). He viewed a visit there as a steppingstone for his eventual plan to evangelize Spain (15:24), but he lacked the complete assurance that it was God’s will for him to go to Rome (1:10). Nonetheless, he laid his plans to go and submitted the actual execution of those plans to the Lord whom he knew would order (or re-order) his steps (15:28). A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps (Proverbs 16:9).
After walking with the Lord for sixty-nine years, George Müller uttered the following testimony:
I never remember in all my Christian course . . . that I ever sincerely and patiently sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the Word of God, but I have been always directed rightly.
[i] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are quoted from The New King James Bible.
[ii] This series is adapted from the book Planning Your Life God's Way.