Decision Dilemma God has a plan for each of our lives, but when and how He reveals it to us is up to Him. By Catey Hinkle

Choosing a college was one of my first experiences with a major life decision that felt overwhelming. I had recently turned eighteen, and as the burden of decision-making transitioned from my parents to myself, the weight of selecting the right school was heavy on my mind. I knew the college I attended would have important and long-lasting effects on my life—the people I would live among for four years, the professors and students I would work with, my future career, and more things I could not foresee. Yet I had no idea what direction to take. More than anything, I wanted the Lord to lead my decision, so I earnestly prayed about it and waited for an answer. And waited . . . and waited.

The Waiting Game

To my disappointment, God never said, “Thou shalt attend George Fox University,” or any of the other schools where I had applied. I thought God would be forced to give me an answer in April of my senior year, when schools send acceptance and rejection letters, but instead I learned that I had been placed on three waiting lists. It was anticlimactic to say the least.

Month after month I waited on God, all the while wondering why He did not just tell me what His plan was. My consecrations were in place and I was willing to go to schools in the Northwest, Midwest, or East Coast, or none at all, if that was what God said to do. But He did not tell me to do anything.

It was not until late July (only about a month before my classes would begin) that I knew for sure which college I would attend. Based almost entirely on the financial aid package my family could afford, I enrolled at a university near my hometown. Later, through several events and answers to prayer, God made it clear to me that this was where He wanted me, but I still wondered, Why didn’t He just say that in the first place?

A Realization

For a while after that experience, I continued to be frustrated by important decisions. I thought that if I drew close enough to God, then He would start telling me what He had planned for my life. However, that was not the way God led me to find the right roommate, major, job, or anything else. Instead, I would pray, worry and wait, and then at the last minute, something would come up that was clearly God’s plan. The more I saw God come through for me, the less I fretted over my decisions, but I still wanted to know how I could get a little more advance notice from Him.

Just as I was becoming accustomed to the idea that God may not ever give me much notice on important choices, I read the story of how God led Samuel to anoint Israel’s first king, Saul. The account in 1 Samuel 8-9 tells how the Israelites decided they did not want judges to rule them through God’s leading anymore; they wanted a king. Although it was not God’s plan, He agreed to give them a king because they were so determined to have one. This meant that the nation faced a huge decision: who should be their king? The new ruler would have tremendous power—he could tax them, confiscate their property and possessions, and lead them to war. They had to choose just the right person. As I read, I was so surprised to find out that God revealed this critical choice to Samuel “a day before Saul came.” I could not believe it! The Prophet Samuel—the holy man of God—got one day’s notice?

At that moment, I had a realization. If the Prophet Samuel was not always “in the loop” on future events, then no one is. And I will not be either. What a relief! This means we do not have to seek God’s direction until He spells out the answer to every question we have; we can just take our concerns to Him and trust that He will answer—in His time and way. We may not know what will happen until the day before we need the answer, or even later, but we know God is faithful and He will provide an answer.

No Worries

Shortly after reading about Samuel, I read another Biblical account that gave more insight about God’s leading. In 2 Kings 6, the Syrian king was trying to capture the Israelites but could not because God used the Prophet Elisha to warn about the attack. When the king of Syria discovered it was Elisha who had thwarted his efforts, he sent an army to surround the city where Elisha lived. The next morning, Elisha’s servant awoke early and was alarmed to find the city surrounded. In distress he said, “Alas, my master! how shall we do?”

At this point in the story, I thought Elisha might have been wondering why God did not mention the army outside his door a little sooner. However, Elisha was not worried at all. His response was, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” Here again, a man who was extremely in tune with God had no idea what God’s plans were, and he was not in the least concerned about that. The reason for his calmness comes in the following verses, when God opens the eyes of Elisha’s servant and he sees a heavenly host ready to defend them. Elisha was not worried because he knew God was in control. Whether God chose to tell His plan to Elisha or not, he knew he could trust God.

We also do not need to worry when we are not sure what to do in a particular situation. Human nature makes us want to have specific plans for the future, but it is far better to simply know that God is in control. As a prospective college student, I was under the impression that it was my Christian duty to seek God until He told me what to do in important decisions, but now I understand that we are not the ones who determine what information we need from God; He does that. As we seek His will and trust in Him, He tells us what we need to know. Remember, neither Samuel nor Elisha fretted about their uncertain situations, and it was not because God had explained exactly how things would turn out. They did not know the details, but they did not worry because they knew the outcome: God’s will would be done. If we pray until we know that, we will not worry either.

Catey Hinkle graduated from Willamette University, and is on the editorial staff of the
Higher Way magazine. She attends the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland, Oregon.