When it comes to God’s guidance in our lives, we tend to want the answer to one question: Which choice should I make in this decision? But while the Bible gives us wisdom for our decision-making, it puts much more emphasis on knowing and trusting God. It seems that God cares more about us becoming the kind of person he wants us to be than he does in detecting some mystical guidance on a particular decision.
In fact, the question is not so much how God guides but whom God guides. So, what kind of person receives God’s guidance?
1. Those who are trained in the ways of God
Psalm 25:4 says, “Make your ways known to me, Lord; teach me your paths” (CSB). David is talking here about an inward familiarity with the ways of God that trains him how to act.
Here’s how the New Testament talks about this: “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:13-14 NIV).
“Constant use” means being so saturated in Scripture and skilled in its application that it becomes second nature. “Trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” refers to things not outlined in Scripture. Even when the Bible is not as straightforward on a topic as you would wish, being trained in Scripture can give you the instinct to know what God wants. In other words, we shouldn’t “trust our gut” unless our gut has been sufficiently stuffed with Bible.
We need to be saturated in God’s ways so that we think in patterns of Scripture, because we won’t live out the will of God any more than we know the Word of God.
2. Those who are obedient to the commands of God
“He leads the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth to those who keep his covenant and decrees” (Psalm 25:9-10 CSB).
God’s promise to give guidance in the areas Scripture doesn’t address is extended to those who are obeying him in those areas the Scriptures do address. When you disobey and proudly assume your way is better, you cut yourself off from God’s guidance.
Some of you right now are saying, “God, what is your will in this decision?” That’s a fine question to ask, but do you have some area of disobedience in your life? God will always point you back to that area of disobedience so that you can go and deal with it first.
Maybe your obedience feels like it is only leading you to more difficulty. Maybe you say, “God, why am I not married by now?” The more you follow God, the more it seems he is guiding you away from marriage, not toward it. So you are tempted to compromise. Maybe you are concerned about your business and you are tempted to compromise your integrity to get ahead. Or maybe telling the truth could hurt your career, so you are tempted to lie to your boss.
Ultimately, you have to decide whom you trust with your future. When you decide to wait on God, it means doing things his way and trusting him to exalt you in his time.
3. Those who trust in the promises of God
“The secret counsel of the Lord is for those who fear him” (Psalm 25:14). The “secret counsel” implies that there’s nothing withheld from you. Tim Keller says that this phrase indicates those special moments of Spirit-guidance God wants to give you, and there are multiple ways he can do it: through the counsel of the church (Acts 13:2), arrangement of circumstances (Paul in Acts 16, 2 Corinthians), and inner promptings in prayer (Nehemiah). When these are necessary, they are given to the person who trusts in God and walks in his way.
So when you have to make a decision, take advantage of every means of wisdom you have at your disposal—Scripture, your reason, the counsel of others, the leading of the Holy Spirit—and then make the wisest decision you can. You may not feel the affirmation of warm fuzzies in your tummy. You don’t need that. What you do need is trust—trust that God is guiding you, just like he promised he would.
4. Those who depend on the grace of God
What haunts many in their pursuit of God’s will is the thought that maybe God has mixed feelings toward them—as if he is holding some grudge against them because of their sin or his disappointment in them. So, in any good blessing, they are waiting on the other shoe to drop.
I’ve got good news for you: How God guides you and what God gives you is no longer based on the worthiness of how you lived but on the worthiness of how Jesus has lived.
David wrote, “All the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth” (Psalm 25:10). Or, as the Apostle Paul put it, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
You don’t have to wait for the other shoe to drop. It already dropped, and it dropped on Jesus in your place.
In the gospel, you can embrace the promise to walk in blessing all the days of your life. In Christ, you are blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3). All the promises of God are “yes” in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father, in whom there are no second thoughts or mixed feelings toward you (James 1:17). And, surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life (Psalm 23:6).
That is how you go through life with confidence! Become the kind of person God wants you to be, learn to trust him with the rest, and watch your confidence begin to soar.
