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Questions About Life and God
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By Marilyn Adamson
We all face tough decisions. As we grow into adulthood, decisions get tougher.
Where to live? Buy a house? Stay with/find/change jobs? How to get care for your own or someone in your family’s medical needs? How to meet the needs of aging parents?
In other words, how to navigate life.
Some people find strength in their faith in God. What does God have to say about this? Does God offer to help us as we face decisions?
Here’s what we know.
God loves all people, but he consistently offers help to those people who will rely on him.
In other words, he wants to help and guide all of us. But only those who are willing to trust him will experience the benefit of his guidance.
It’s similar to whether a person acts on the advice of a doctor, a pilot, or an accountant. If you trust them and do what they say, it usually turns out for your good.
Just like a doctor, a pilot or an accountant guides you with their words, so does God. And so it’s our responsibility to listen to what God says, trust him, and act on it.
Here then is what God says to us.
First, God often mentions our need for humility in order for him to guide us. That makes sense. You can’t trust someone if you think they are incompetent or assume you know more than they do. So God says…
“He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way.”1
“Who are those who fear the Lord? He will teach them the path they should choose.”2
Let me give you a couple of examples from my own life.
I was planning on moving thousands of miles away to California to start a new job. Not married at the time, I was thinking through a list of friends, wondering who might be a great roommate. (As if I could persuade them to move to California.)
I landed on one person from my college days who I thought would be great. I hadn’t talked to her in many months, and knew she was well established in her job.
Thirty minutes later, this person called me and immediately said, “I’ve got the pots, pans and dishes.” I said, “What?”
She replied that she had heard from a mutual friend that I was moving to California. Turns out, so was she and was calling to see if I would room with her.
In my life, I probably could tell you 50 more situations where God’s guidance was very clear. And many were at pivotal times in my life when I really needed God to guide me. Jobs, marriage, meeting critical needs of relatives, etc.
God invites us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”3
One time I was at a conference of 4,000 people. I was sitting way in the back, in the bottom row of elevated bleachers facing the stage. I had missed much of the conference to care for my child who was sick. But now, this last day, I was able to come.
As I sat there, I was talking to God about an article I was writing. There was one woman named Linda whose writing I highly respected who might have come to this conference.
So I said to God, “I wonder what it would take to find Linda in this crowd?”
A few minutes later, Linda walked in the back door and stood just below my feet. I leaned forward, tapped her on the shoulder and we met for lunch.
I share this as an example of God’s willingness to guide those who know and trust him.
In both of the examples I’ve shared, I was in the midst of trying to accomplish something I thought God wanted me to do.
When God wants to fulfill a particular purpose he has in mind, and you desire to do his will, God will do amazing things.
However, God will also guide us simply because of his love for us.
Jesus Christ often spoke in parables and stories to get his point across. In one illustration, Jesus described himself as a shepherd, guiding, protecting and caring for his sheep.
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me…”4
Shepherds often used their voice to guide their sheep.
A shepherd could go to a fenced area where many flocks of sheep were kept by many shepherds. A shepherd could call his sheep, and they would recognize his voice and follow only that shepherd.
Scientists have found that sheep will know their shepherd’s voice for two years or more.
Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.”5
So there is a special relationship that God calls us into…to know him and listen to his voice.
God says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you."6
This doesn’t mean with God’s guidance life becomes easy and everything goes our way. But it means that you don’t have to go through life alone, with all of life’s decisions squarely only on your shoulders.
God often speaks through his written word, the Bible. Some of what people refer to as his “commands” are actually wise counsel. Life will go better if we don’t murder, don’t covet someone else’s stuff, and if we will choose to forgive someone rather than stay angry and resentful.
God, as our Creator, tells us in the Bible how to approach life so that we can experience what Jesus described as “life, more abundantly.”
But in addition to general counsel, there is also a private, individual way that God will speak through the Bible for those who want his guidance.
Our first child, at full term, was stillborn. I had warning from my doctor at four months of the pregnancy. God spoke to me then through the Bible which gave me comfort and some peace as I faced the future possibilities.
A week after her death, I unexpectedly became fearful that my husband might die. I asked God to speak to that fear and he led me to these words:
“Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation, no evil shall befall you…”7 (italics mine)
I knew that God did not promise that a person wouldn’t die. People die. But I sensed that God was saying to me, even if my husband died, God wouldn’t allow it to be evil in my life.
You might wonder if this means you can make the Bible say anything you want. Such skepticism is valid.
But I take the risk to share this experience, because it’s an example of what Jesus said about his assurance that his sheep will recognize his voice. A relationship with God is quite personal, and it what he desires for you.
If you’re not sure if you’ve ever started a relationship with God like this, please see: Knowing God Personally.
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Footnotes: (1) Psalms 25:9 (2) Psalms 25:12 (3) Proverbs 3:5,6 (4) John 10:14 (5) John 10:26-28 (6) Psalms 32:8 (7) Psalms 91:9,10
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