He Knows Your Path

Vicki Norris

I'm working on spending less time being anxious. Especially as we step into a new year, there are a lot of unknowns in my life. Usually, I can skip ahead on my calendar to a year from now, and everything will still be planned out. Now, my life goes blank after August. I have no idea what my world will look like nine months from now, because once I graduate, everything changes. 

Looking at the totally blank calendar and not knowing where I'm going to school is slightly terrifying. Though my anxiety has significantly decreased in the last year, there is still a lot of stress in the big decisions awaiting me. I find myself obsessing over whether or not I'm going to make the "right" choice.

Scripture says very clearly that God knows your path, and that He has plans to prosper you (Jeremiah 29:11). It says that the Father gives good gifts, and that we have no reason to doubt His provision (Matthew 7:11). It also says to knock and the door will be opened, and to ask and you shall receive (Matthew 7:7). I know all of this to be true. I know God has a plan for me. Yet what I have struggled to understand recently is how I am to know what that plan is. I feel confident that He will reveal it in His time, but I doubt my own ability to recognize what He wants for me. 

When I spoke to a mentor about this, she pointed me to a piece of Scripture I hadn't considered before. 2 Corinthians 3:17 says that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." She asked me a very simple question. Does this choice feel like freedom, or entrapment? In that five-minute conversation, so many doors were opened for me. 

God is not a villain who entraps people. He provides renewal, freedom, and peace. That being said, if the option you are leaning towards feels like a cage, that might be a reason to assume it's not from God. Now, of course, this is not to say that following Christ is easy. Scripture makes it very clear that faith is, in fact, difficult (2 Timothy 3:12). It should also be noted that our personal feelings about a decision should come secondary to God's explicit commands about a situation. If something feels "freeing," but it is directly condemned by God, it's safe to assume you shouldn't operate on feelings. 

But the point is, if there is something good and not sinful, yet you feel trapped, then maybe that's not the door that God is pointing you towards. For example, there isn't anything wrong with going to the University of North Georgia. It's not sinful, it's not against God's commands, and there are probably lots of great opportunities there. However, for me personally, I felt a sense of restriction and fear in the option of going there. 

The point is this. God has a plan for you. You're not going to screw it up, even if you tried to. In fact, you can't screw it up, because He is omniscient and already knows every curveball you're going to throw. (I'm not here to debate free will or predestination.) He has a plan for you that will be revealed. In the meantime, however, the best you can do is to stop worrying and start chasing after Him. Familiarize yourself with His Word, so that you can recognize His gifts, yet also understand that God is not going to make you feel like you're suffocating, and if you do feel that way, then maybe you need to consider some of the other options He has given you. 

Decisions are scary, but we have to make them all the time. Have patience in the waiting and confidence that He will lead you to what you need.