Tag Archives: direction from God

Scriptures About Direction from God

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Scriptures About Direction from God

Do you ever have those times where you just really don’t know what to do and you need some direction from God? I’ve written about this a few times before…

Don’t understand? Stuck? Confused? Need direction? Ask God!

What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do

How to Understand God’s Will

However, I’ve yet to put together a list of scriptures about direction from God until now. I always find scripture to be helpful because it’s a promise from God that I can stand on and/or His own word that I can pray directly back to him. Therefore today’s post will contain an abundance of Bible verses for you about direction from God to hopefully help you if you’re in a position of needing some guidance.

Scripture can be helpful because it’s a promise from God that you can pray directly back to Him.

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Scriptures encouraging us to ask God

God doesn’t want us to be confused, and he wants to be confident in coming to him and to his Word (the Bible) with our needs and to ask for guidance or direction. When we ask God, He will guide us to the answer and direct our steps. The answer does not always come immediately, in our timetable (Habakkuk 2:3, 2 Peter 3:9, Isaiah 55:8-9). It’s important to remember that we need to listen for, expect an answer, and wait on an answer.

“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace…” 1 Corinthians 14:33a (ESV)

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God…” Hebrews 4:16a (NLT)

“The revelation of Your words brings light and gives understanding to the inexperienced.” Psalm 119:130 (HCSB)

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:14 (NIV)

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV)

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:5 (NIV)

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 (NIV)

“I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4 (NIV)

“You do not have, because you do not ask.” James 4:2b (ESV)

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:22 (NIV)

Scriptures About Direction from God

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How To Use the Correct GPS–God Positioning System

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How To Use the Correct GPS--God Positioning System

How To Use the Correct GPS–God Positioning System

I would consider myself “directionally challenged”.  Just ask my husband.  It doesn’t take much for me to get lost.  I’m a HUGE fan of GPS now though.  Where were personal GPS devices 19 years ago when I was driving to my in-laws’ new house in Texas for the first time?  A GPS would have saved me several wrong turns and a very tearful conversation on the phone with my father-in-law (there might have even been some frantic yelling on my part 🙂 ) as he was trying to verbally direct me to their ranch.  Apparently you can turn both ways on a loop, and if you go the wrong way and then take a right-hand turn you will end up completely opposite of where you want to be.  Oops.

“Directionally challenged” in life

I’ve discovered that sometimes I can be “directionally challenged” in life too, and like a lot of people, I don’t always seek direction and guidance.  Sometimes I even flat-out ignore it.  It’s either…

    • “I don’t need your help. I can do it by myself.”
    • “No way! I’m not doing that!”
    • “That’s got to be the wrong way.”
    • “I think this way might be better.”
    • “I don’t trust you. What if you’re wrong?”
    • or something similar

Next thing I know, I end up lost or completely opposite of where I should be.  What’s even more sad is Continue reading →

Don’t Understand? Stuck? Confused? Need Direction? …Ask God

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Don’t Understand? Stuck? Confused? Need Direction? …Ask God

Do you ever just feel stuck, confused, or at a loss about something? I have found myself in situations like that on a number of occasions. Something that I’ve learned about God’s character though is that He doesn’t want us to be confused. He’s also not afraid of nor offended by our questions. God wants us to come confidently and boldly to him without being afraid. We shouldn’t be afraid to ask God about anything. He wants relationship with us.

“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace…” 1 Corinthians 14:33 (ESV)

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God…” Hebrews 4:16a (NLT)

We should feel free to ask God about something we don’t understand or about something that confuses us. We can ask God for direction when we don’t know what to do about a situation. Additionally, God wants us to approach him with our needs. Anytime we need an answer, we can and should ask God!

When we need understanding

We are free to ask God anything we want. If we don’t understand something, we can ask God! It could even be something as simple as a question about the use of a word we don’t understand in the Bible. I shared before about a time when I decided to ask God about the meaning of the word “glory” when I heard the term used in the phrase “show me your glory”.

I didn’t understand what “glory” meant in that context nor how God could show it to us. So I prayed, “God, what does ‘glory’ mean? How can you ‘show me your glory’?” It was several months later before I got an answer, but it came nonetheless! I was listening to one of my favorite speakers, Beth Jones when she explained that “glory” meant God’s physical, tangible presence. Then I also saw the New Living Translation of Exodus 33:18 “Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.” This again answered my question that I had asked God several months prior. God was faithful to answer me, and He’s done it multiple times since.

When we need direction

More recently, I had an opportunity to ask God for some help and direction as I have struggled some with leading a group of teenage girls in our church youth group. Without getting into the whole story, for time’s sake, let’s just say that I’ve been acting in reluctant obedience for the past 9 months to this “call” to be a small group leader for our students!

Working with the student and/or children’s ministry is WAAAAAY out of my comfort zone! As I expected, I felt that I was in over my head when it came to dealing with younger maturity levels. On many nights our group was quite chaotic, and I don’t do chaos well. I was almost at a breaking point, when I decided to ask God for direction on how to handle this situation at which I felt that I was failing miserably.

What story??

I woke up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep with several things on my mind. I got up, made cup of hot tea, grabbed my journal, and started praying and asking God about some things. I determined that I would write down whatever “answers” came into my head. As I prayed and asked God for direction, the phrase “tell a story” came into my mind. So I wrote that down. Then underneath that I wrote “What story??”

What Story??

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How to Decide Where God is Leading

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What’s Next? How to Decide where God is Leading

Guest Post: How to Decide Where God is Leading

This week I’d like to introduce you to one of my friends, Rachel Foley! I’ve known Rachel for about 3 years now.  Well, actually we went to college together many moons ago, but we didn’t really know each other back then. Only in recent years have we become good friends after reconnecting at a conference where I spoke and Rachel led worship.  Let me tell you, she’s pretty amazing! 🙂

Rachel and her husband Shad are worship leaders at Solace Church. They are venturing out on a new, exciting endeavor to encourage others in faith and family life…their own blog: ShadrachandRachel.com. Rachel is a wonderful writer, and Shad is hilarious. I think you guys are going to enjoy their very genuine and humorous writing style as much as I do! It’s my honor and pleasure to introduce their launch to you with Rachel’s first blog post about how to decide where God is leading.

What’s Next?  How to Decide Where God is Leading

by Rachel Foley

At some point in all Christ-follower’s lives, we ask the question, “What is God’s plan for me?”  I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard a loud and clear immediate answer to that question, and I would be very wary of believing anyone who says she has.  We want to hear His voice in the wind or have a burning-bush type moment that transforms us and compels us to passionate obedience.  To our dismay, the call is not always dramatic or to something grand and life-changing.   While it is true that God may have some grand designs for your life, they typically do not begin in a grand fashion.  God has already laid out His plans for us, and they begin with ordinary, small steps of obedience.

My Story

Let me briefly share my story. Every time I have felt God’s call on my heart, it has made me sick, literally. In fact, nausea has accompanied most steps of obedience I’ve taken!  When God has knocked on my heart’s door, it has always been an invitation to join Him in some work for which I felt completely inadequate. Not very glamorous and powerful, I know, but it is true, regardless.

When I was pregnant with our third little blessing, I felt God stirring in me.  (Perhaps it was indigestion, but it was stirring, nonetheless.)  I felt God calling my heart to some new adventure.  I began to draw close to Him in order to hear His voice.  Months went by.  I delivered my sweet baby girl, and my dreams of continuing to stay at home full-time began to be squished and stretched and morphed into this horrible, dreadful feeling that God was calling me to become a nurse.  Hilarious!   I was an English major! I nearly puked at the vet’s office watching my dog get stitches!  And the creator of the universe was telling me to go to nursing school?  YES.  Nausea set in.  Anxiety followed.  The tears were frequent.  I threw a few little temper tantrums, but I eventually followed the call.

Baby Steps

I began slowly.  I clung so tightly to Him, I’m pretty sure I left fingernail marks.  I spent time with Him every day in prayer and Scripture.  I finally agreed to be obedient, but only in baby steps.  I told God I would go see the advisor at school, and nothing else!  When that went well, I told Him I would take one science class at a time.  When that went well, I told Him I would become a Certified Nurse Assistant.  When that went well, I told Him I would apply for nursing school.  When I got accepted, terrified and shaking, I consented and learned far more about faith, perseverance, and the power of Scripture than I had in my whole life. That journey required every single ounce of faith I had in my weak, little soul.  However, I not only graduated, I graduated at the top of my class and delivered the student address at commencement.  ALL GOD.

This particular part of my journey took four years.  Significant change does not happen overnight.  When we commit to seeking God’s call on our lives, we must realize that it is a process.  Obey in baby steps.  Psalm 119:105 says God’s Word is a “lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  When you commit to obedience to God’s call on your life, he will light your path just enough for you to see where your feet need to land next.  A dear friend of mine, Tracy Robbins, addresses the same idea in her blog “Incremental Obedience.” I recommend you read it at HappyHealthyandProsperous.com.

If you are truly ready to discover God’s plan for your life, start with what He has already told you.  It’s all right there in Scripture.

…continuing reading the rest of Rachel’s post here where she gives a few practical steps to decide where God is leading you!

If you know anyone that could benefit from this, please pay it forward!  Share this post via the sharing links below.  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV) 

Stop and Take Time to Listen to God

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Learn how to Stop and Take Time to Listen to God...

Stop and Take Time to Listen to God

Taking regular time to stop and listen to God is not a strong suit of mine. I do hear from God on a fairly regular basis. I know his voice and how he talks to me. Unfortunately I hate to admit that I kind of stink at being intentional about taking time to listen to God. This topic isn’t what I was going to originally write about this week. It was only because of taking time to listen to God that I decided to write about listening to God!

My notes are lost

I seem to have lost my notes for my original topic. I’m serious – I can’t find them anywhere! I searched my quiet time journal. I’ve looked through my Bible and sermon notes. I looked through my computer documents. I’ve looked through my phone notes. I even looked around for random post-it notes where I may have written some things down. Nothing. Now, I can’t even remember if I even wrote the notes down to begin with, but I could’ve sworn that I did.

After searching around frantically for my notes for well over an hour, I decided to just pray about it and ask God to help me find them. Then I remembered my quiet time about stopping and listening to God. It was about taking time to just stop and be quiet. So I decided to do that after I prayed about losing my notes.

Maybe they were “lost” on purpose

I began to think that maybe my notes were “lost” on purpose because God had other intentions of what he wanted me to write about this week. If I’m right, it’s what he’s been gently correcting me about recently. It’s about making time to stop and listen to him on purpose.

While listening, I had the thought, “Well, maybe they’re lost on purpose because I’m not supposed to write about them. Maybe I’m supposed to write about something else. I usually pray every week about what I’m going to write about, but I don’t think I did this week. I think I just decided last week what this week’s topic would be and then didn’t really spend a whole lot of time in prayer about it. Well, I guess it serves me right!” Leave it to God to conveniently cause my notes to go missing when I try to do things my way without consulting him or listening to him!

Oh, the irony

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What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do

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What to do when you don’t know what to do

What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do

I recently received a question from a sweet reader on a previous post I had written, How To Use the Correct GPS–God Positioning System. This person felt like they might be on the wrong track and may have made a wrong decision about attending a design school. They were starting to doubt their original decision to attend. The essence of this reader’s question was basically, “What do you do when you don’t know what to do?”

I think that many people could relate to this question. So today I wanted to share my advice to this reader for when you don’t know what to do, in hopes that it may help others too. There are 3 simple steps that I find helpful in any decision-making process, large or small. I’ll jump right into your practical steps…

Take Some Practical Steps When You Don’t Know What To Do:

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Ask God About Your Gifts And Purpose

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Ask God About Your Gifts And Purpose...He is your artist and author.

Ask God About Your Gifts And Purpose

This past week we talked about how you have to look for and discover your gifts. It’s kind of like you’re a detective on a case trying to solve a mystery. One of the steps of the search process is to ask God about your gifts and purpose. After all, He’s the one who created you! If anybody would know what your gifts are and how you are supposed to use them it would be God.

I guess you could liken it to inquiring about a painting. Who would you ask if you had questions about the details of a painting? The artist, of course. What about a book that has left you with some questions? Who would you ask if you wanted to know more than what was on the surface? You would ask the author! The creators of the works have all of the knowledge and the inside scoop. They knew what they had in mind when they created their work.

God: Artist and Author

Similarly, God is your creator. God is your artist. You are His Masterpiece.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

God is the also the author who has already written your story. Because of that, He already knows how it ends!

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 (KJV)  

God is both artist and author.

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Therefore, when you have questions about yourself and how you were made, Continue reading →