Following God's Lead
One of the first lessons I learned at the start of my spiritual pursuit was to follow God. I learned that if I wasn't sure of a decision, to seek Him for an answer. I learned to wait for Him to answer my questions, before I take a step; and if He didn't answer, then to be still. I learned that obedience was not just following His rules (commandments), but following His path for my life.
So, I do.
I pray to Him about all important decisions. I ask for His guidance on things I need help with. And I seek Him in all areas of life. I’ve acknowledged that His say-so is much better than any I could give myself. So, I follow it. I yield to His orders it like my life depended on it - because it does.
Last night, however, I noticed an issue. Something we may all be guilty of.
Before heading to bed, I asked God to lead me. I've been so overwhelmed in varying areas of my life, I had a hard time pinpointing one or two things to focus my prayer on. So instead of asking for anything in particular, I simply asked for His guidance. I asked Him to lead me and I promised Him I'd follow.
What He communicated to me thereafter, I hadn't seen coming. But instead of my willingness being magnified, I began looking for excuses as to why I should; excuses that I planned to use to explain to others. Instead of simply saying "yes, God" I found myself thinking of ways to convince people that following God would be the best decision. I believed God’s orders were best for me, but I felt a need to get others to believe the same.
I’ve been living for the wrong people my entire life. I’ve been looking for approval from those around me (within the restrictions of my own values) instead of The One who lies within me: Christ.
In order to follow God’s plan, we have to follow His lead, even without the support and understanding of those around us. When we bow down and ask Him for help, ask Him to lead us and ask Him for guidance, we must hold up our end of the bargain and follow Him. We are at fault when we hear Him clearly and refuse to act. We are held accountable for that.
We do not need a favorable opinion from anyone around us, to follow God. It is not our duty to explain our paths to clarify confusion for other people. It is not anyone's business what route God has us walking; and much like we don't need to understand His plan, they don't need to understand ours.
When we ask God to lead us, we have to trust Him. We have to trust His process. We have to trust where He's taking us and why He's taking us there.
Admittedly, it is hard; throwing away our desires to travel to unknown territories, is no easy feat. But we have to understand that His path is the best path for our lives.
Nobody said following God’s plan would be a breeze; nobody ever explained this journey as a fun road trip with the radio’s Top 100 Hits playing through your car speakers. The place He's taking us from will not be easy to leave. The things He wants us to leave behind will not be easy to let go of. But we must free our hands from our old baggage if we want to travel with Christ. We have to let go of the old parts of us, so we can grab on to the new parts — the new pieces of ours lives; the new job opportunities and business endeavors; the new relationships and networks; the new blessings and grace.
We have to trust God enough to follow Him down the road that holds our destiny and stop awaiting approval from those who may never understand our path anyway. We have to stop looking for alternate routes from those who don't even know our destination – and follow the GPS that is God.