How does God guide us?
For so many young people this is a burning question.
My headmaster said to me, “There are two major decisions everyone faces in life. The first is a decision about who you marry. The second is a decision about what career, job or profession you will follow.”
Actually he left out the most important decision of all.
The decision about Jesus.
Will we give ourselves to Him or not?
But if we do, how will He guide us?
I first want to talk about trust.
Because sometimes we feel we are quagmired in a situation that frustrates us.
Perhaps we are single and longing to be married. Or perhaps we are in a job where we are bored, frustrated or abused, and longing for release.
We cannot make a decision about who to marry if we are not in a relationship with anyone. We can pray for a Christian partner, but then we have to trust God. Once we are in a relationship we can pray for guidance, asking God to make it clear whether this is the right partner. But until we are in such a relationship, we need to trust Him and wait to see His answer.
I can remember waking up one morning crying out to God, “Lord, change me, change me!”
His reply was crystal clear.
“Don’t ask Me to change you. I have already changed you. That is not the issue. The issue is – do you trust Me?
Of course He has changed us.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation. The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV marginalia)
So the challenge is to trust Him in our single state. We should pray for the Christian partner God has for us and at the same time say, “Lord, Your will be done, not mine.”
Of course God will not want us to marry someone that we do not love, but if we think that “love” is the only criterion, then the fact that our law courts are littered with divorce cases of couples who once loved each other should give us pause.
Your will, God, not mine.
Nor my parents’ will, by the way. They, or our friends, may see something we don’t, and we should be prepared to listen.
But we would be wise to seek His confirmation.