Left will take you into our new church’s parking lot. Straight ahead will take you to a road I grew up driving and biking or even to the interstate eventually and toward where we used to live in Virginia. We are so grateful for how God directed us every step of the way in coming to Calvary, and I’m especially glad that the decision was up to God, not me! There were definitely uncertain waiting times, but God stayed faithful and always led us and gave us wisdom every step of the way.
I was reading this morning in 2 Samuel about David running for his life from Absalom his son and some of the advice that he and Absalom got. Some was good. Some was bad. Some was followed. Some was ignored.
2 Samuel 16:23 says, “And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counselled in those days, was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.”
We have an advantage they didn’t have back then: We have the whole completed Bible. How can we tell if we’re getting good advice? Compare it to Scripture.
Let’s follow God’s Word in everything that we do know, everything that’s clear. Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to lead in everything else first of all. Then it’ll be easy in time to tell which way He’s leading in that one situation.
And then we need to be willing to follow the good advice God gives us.
I love what the great evangelist, orphanage builder, and prayer warrior George Mueller said about finding God’s will: “I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.”
Long quote but really nails it. What do we do when we don’t know what to do? Commit to doing whatever God has planned for us, and get busy living out the parts of the plan we do know (even when that’s just one small step at a time).