What if we find ourselves with no clear direction? Maybe this season in your life has gone on for long that you seem to have lost your way. You see others around you obtaining their goals, getting promoted, seemingly thriving while you remain stuck. Maybe you had direction and didn’t follow it. Having direction for our lives is crucial. Otherwise we can be left feeling purposeless, fruitless, and as though all efforts are futile.
From Proverbs 11:14 (ESV) we learn, “Without good direction, people lose their way; the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.” Who are we taking our counsel from? Do we use our own compass to discover the path for our lives? Do we go with the trends of our culture? Do we make whim based decisions based on our current circumstances?
What if we took our counsel from the Lord?
What if we sought His face to give us direction for all things related to our lives from husband/wife choice, career field, and even our next job? What if we stopped the feverish pursuits for happiness and promotion and just asked the Lord what He would have us do? The Lord delights in those who seek Him. Check out this listing of the vast number of scriptures related to this: God Rewards Those Who Seek Him.
What I have learned in my walk with the Lord is that it doesn’t matter the job/role I’m serving in, what matters is that I know He has positioned me there for such a time as this. When I’ve gone my own way to pursue selfish ambitions and obtained positions that I thought would satisfy me it was a different experience. Beyond the initial exciting of achievement – the experience was gall mixed with hellfire. When the waves and storms came, I would wilt. I had no peace. I was overwhelmed and unhappy – even in positions that were high paying and offered impressive titles.
In contrast, when I let the Lord determine my steps and guide me what role I should take on it would ALWAYS be purposeful, His peace encompassed me, and I knew the work I did came with eternal rewards, for I was doing the will of the Father. Sure, storms would come in the path He led me down, but I had a strength and anchor for my soul in Him. I knew that as I depended on Him and walked in obedience to His ways that He would make my way, He would give me wisdom, He would give me joy in the midst of what would normally overwhelm and lead to defeat. There is no comparison between the two paths.
What if God seems quiet?
The Lord’s ways are beyond our understanding. Sometimes the Lord is teaching us disciplines, teaching us of Himself and the abiding Holy Spirit to prepare us, refining us in our current circumstance, or even teaching us patience to wait before giving us a specific call or direction in our lives. Sometimes he is waiting on us to do the last thing he told us and we are wanting the next thing. In these times, I’ve learned to “do what is before me in excellence while waiting upon Him for marching orders.” These seasons can last months, years, or even decades. The timings are in the hand of the Lord. Jesus instructed His disciples to wait for the promised Holy Spirit. If you’re currently in a season of waiting, consider Psalm 37:7, Isaiah 40:31, and Micah 7:7. Consider: What is God teaching you, and how is God changing you as you wait?
Alternatively, I’ve experienced the place of ‘no direction’ when I’ve walk away from Him. Anytime I didn’t feel His direction, I noticed it was due to my choice to spend my time on distracting pursuits of the flesh instead of seeking Him, reading His Word, and practicing the disciplines of the faith. Often, it looked as if nothing in my life had changed, I was still “busy” doing all the same things, but in my heart I was numbed out.
Looking back at both circumstances, I asked myself: Was I spending time praying? Was I regularly worshiping Him? Was I fellow shipping with other believers? Was I spending time to seek His face by being still and knowing He is God? Was I practicing disciplines of faith such as fasting, prayer, avoiding worldly pursuits/lusts of the flesh? The answer to most of these questions were usually, “Nope.” In one of more areas I had shut down. The Lord never walks away and leaves us alone, it is our fickle human hearts that walk away from His guidance, direction, and Presence.
Lessons Learned
I share this, so others can learn from my missteps. Years ago I held a leadership position the Lord promised me and made a way for me to obtain. After a joyful season of filling it, that role came under fire from a change in executive leadership (who later was discovered to be ungodly and thus removed). However, before the end of the story came about – instead of standing exactly where the Lord had called me to stand, I gave up and stepped away. I grew weary in well doing and wanted to walk on the “seemingly” easier path, instead of the role I knew God had directed and positioned me to fill. Oh beloved, how I regret that decision.
The Lord even warned me when I was considering stepping down, “Stand where I have called you, for your heart will rejoice in seeing the way that I make.” Instead of focusing on God, I looked at my seemingly bleak circumstance, walk in the flesh instead of the Spirit, and chose to walk the path of least resistance – a path the Lord never directed me to take. It looked easier, and all I wanted at the time was relief. Of course I was exhausted, I was standing in my own strength, not depending on God, and standing without fear. So many times I’ve prayed, “God, forgive me. Don’t give up on me. Direct my steps, I desire to follow Thee.”
Standing In His Calling by Faith
I have learned to follow God, even when it doesn’t make sense or I can’t see the outcome. Some may be directed to take on a more humble role than they had, others may be called to walk on the heights. In either extreme, the one important thing I’ve learned and now know beyond any doubt is to ask this: Has the Lord directed me to this place? If the answer is a confident, “Yes!” I know more are with me than those who are against me. He will be faithful and guide my steps and make the way. Just don’t give up. Do not fear, do not lose faith. The whole point of what we do on earth during our lifetimes is, “Father, not my will but Your will be done.”
Whether you find yourself in a place of “no direction” standing on this side or the other side of God’s calling in your life, just rest assured, He delights to direct and orchestrate our steps (Proverbs 16:9). His way of direction may not come immediately, and we may have to wait upon the Lord. He can take what we offer Him, that is left of our lives, and create something beyond our imagination. Let us not limit God in light of our failures or misunderstandings of His ways.
From my own experiences and lessons learned, I want to encourage those who are called by Jesus’ name and those who are making that decision to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior: Let us seek His Face, offer Him our lives, lay down our ambitions, and our visions for what we think our lives should be. He is our Redeemer, our Way Maker, our Tower of Strength. Let us choose to build our lives on the Rock of our Salvation – Jesus Christ – being infilled with the Holy Spirit who guides and comforts us in all of our walks.
Whether we have 70 more years or 7 more minutes in our journey in this lifetime, let us commit every remaining step to Him and seek His face for Godly Direction for our lives.
Matthew 7:24-27
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Psalm 23:1-6
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell[f] in the house of the Lord forever.