God's Voice?

Afraid of Making The Wrong Decision?

Rick Warren

“He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:3b NIV)

Sometimes we’re afraid of making the wrong decision. And that creates stress.

But God says there is an antidote to our indecision. Psalm 23:3 tells us, “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” We handle the stress of decision-making by letting God guide us.

You may be thinking, “But I’ve tried this!” You asked God to guide you, but then you became more confused than before. You still couldn’t figure it out. You wonder, “Why is knowing God’s will so difficult?”

Is God playing games with us? Of course not! God wants to guide us. He wants us to know his will more than we want to know it. Our problem is we often look for the wrong thing when we’re trying to find God’s will.

Some of us look for a feeling. Some of us want a methodical approach to God’s will, a recipe, or a formula to apply. Some of us take a magical approach and look for God to do some fantastic sign.

All of these ways lead to frustration and cause us to miss God’s will.

God does not want you confused, and he does not want you stressed over making any decision. He is there, guiding you every step of the way.

This is his promise, so you can believe it to be true: “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.”

SPEAK TO ME. :) This has to be a sign right? I totally struggle with this EVERY day with ALL the decisions i cant make. For instance, that missions one (refer to posts below). Its good to know that God doesnt want me stressed or confused, but could he be more clear then? Unfortunately, after reading the devo it didnt answer any of my questions... so it wasnt the most helpful.

Everyone has different ways of interpreting God's voice. It may be through dreams, through other people (thats a reliable one), through reading scripture (which is also reliable because.. he wrote the bible), through signs, like if things come up often, there are just so many things that CAN be God's voice, but how are we to know if they are or arent?

BUT something that i can talk about is what i learnt at a devo at my Quebec's missions. It was based on waiting and watching. Here it is:

Throughout the missions at Ouje-bougoumou this summer, different people got to lead night devotionals each day regarding anything. They just had to share something with us. The following regards prayer and it just really really really stuck with me. I hope to be able to work it out more in my life, apply it more and watch it grow through me. It's based on one word in this passage;

⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” - Matthew 26:41

This was said by Christ Jesus during his last moments with his disciples in Gethsemane as he went to pray. At first when i read this passage, what stuck out to me is "pray so that you will not fall into temptation". But that day, what our leader pointed out blew my mind. WATCH.

There's a reason why God put WATCH and PRAY instead of just PRAY or WAIT and PRAY. The disciples stayed behind as Jesus went to pray. Why didnt he say WAIT and PRAY? Here's why. There's a distinct difference between WATCHING and WAITING. Let's look at 2 different scenarios that'll maybe help us understand.

"Today we went to the park for summer camp, but there was only one bus that had to take two trips to pick up the group in two different sections. During this hot hot hot day, (like 39 degrees), the group that is picked up second frolicks in the grass, looking at animals, and plays hand games while the bus returns for its second pick up."

"At the park, the sun shone brightly and strongly on all the kids. As groups C&D, the remain groups stayed behind as group A&B were returning to church, they continue to complain constantly about the heat, fatigue, hunger, and thirst. Although they were complaining, they stared at the park entrance and got excited whenever they saw something yellow pass by."

There is one scenario above that describes WAITING and another that describes WATCHING. Can you guess which one it is? Scenario one described waiting, and scenario two described watching. The dictionary provides a deeper understand with another perspective.

Waiting: to remain inactive or in a state of repose, as until something expected happens.

Watching: to be alertly on the lookout, look attentively, or observe, as to see what comes, is done, or happens.

(definitions from dictionary.com)

I love the one word in the waiting definition. INACTIVE. Waiting is INACTIVE, where as Watching is ACTIVE. Like the scenario, the kids were FOCUSED. EXPECTING for the bus to arrive, where as the other, the kids were just minding their own thing. The bus could have passed by, they could received a phone call saying a blue bus was coming instead, but they would have missed it.

Jumping back to the passage. Jesus said to the disciples, WATCH and PRAY. This gives us a CLEAR outlook and guide line on how we should pray. We have to pray and whenever we call out to God, God listens to you. He will always provide an answer. 3 main answers, YES. NO. and WAIT. But, we have to WATCH. We always say things like "if its according to your plan" but, not we have to EXPECT an answer because he WILL reply. When we expect an answer, it doesnt mean, do whatever you want and the next day you'll see a YES/NO/WAIT word made of clouds in the sky, but it means to be FOCUSED. Watch for the answer. Watch for his signs. If we just WAIT for an answer, its really easy to miss God's opportunities he gives us, the gifts and blessings we get, and what we want too. In fact, waiting causes distractions and maybe you wont even see the giant cloud providing your answer either.

We have to learn to WATCH instead of WAIT when we pray. Its something i need to improve one, and actually WATCH. EXPECT IT. FOCUS ON YOUR SURROUNDINGS THAT GOD WILL ANSWER. Watch and Pray.