Need to make an important decision but God isn’t answering You?

Reading this might put things in perspective.... — candy

Walking By Faith

“Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came, saying, To morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel, that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines.” – 1 Samuel 9:15-16

The first time in my life that I felt seriously concerned about a decision I had to make was when I was thinking about which college to go to. I knew that my decision would impact many parts of my life—the people I would live with, the professors and students I would work with, my future career, and even more things that I could not foresee. So much was on the line! More than anything, I wanted the Lord to direct my decision. I earnestly prayed about it and waited for an answer. And waited . . . and waited.

To my disappointment, God never said, “Thou shalt attend George Fox University,” or any of the four other schools where I had applied. I thought God would be forced to give me an answer in April of my senior year, when schools send out acceptance and rejection letters, but instead I learned that I had been placed on three waiting lists! Month after month I waited on God, all the while wondering why He did not just tell me what school I would go to. It was not until late July—only about a month before my classes would begin—that I knew for sure which college I would attend.

For a while after that experience, I continued to be frustrated by important decisions. I thought that if I drew closer to God, He would tell me what He had planned for my life, and then I could finally stop worrying about it. However, that was not the way God led me to find the right roommate, major, job, or anything else. Instead, I would pray, worry and wait, and then at the last minute something would come up that was clearly God’s plan. The more I saw God come through for me, the less I fretted over my decisions, but I still wondered what I had to do to get a little more notice from God.

Just as I was becoming accustomed to the idea that God may not ever give me much notice on important choices, I read the story about how God led Samuel to anoint Israel’s first king, Saul. I was so surprised to read that God told Samuel “a day before Saul came.” I could not believe it! The Prophet Samuel—the holy man of God—got one day’s notice? I then realized that if Samuel was not in the loop, I would never be in the loop. But this was actually a relief! I finally understood that we do not have to seek God until He spells out the answer to every question we have; we can just take our concerns to Him and then trust that He will answer—in His time. We may not know what will happen until the day before we need an answer, or even later, but we know God is faithful and He will provide an answer.

I do not think Samuel was the type to worry or fret about decisions, and that was clearly not because God told him everything that would ever happen to him. Samuel did not know the details, but he had peace because he knew the outcome: God’s will would be done. If we pray until we know that, we will have peace, too.

Article from http://www.apostolicfaith.org/

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