I’ve often said to many whom I’ve counseled, “the toughest decision in life is when you are faced with many possibilities none of which are biblically wrong and any one of them would be a good logical choice”

It’s true, you may have multiple job offers on the table all of them look good and any one of them you chose would please God. You could be that student who has been accepted to several different colleges and universities. You’ve done your research into each one and they all look good except that you are not able to make a decision.  You may be a married couple trying to decide whether to start a family now at the cost of pursuing a career, or delay having children to focus on climbing the corporate ladder. Neither one of these choice goes against God and they both have their pros and/or cons. What do you do when the options are many and God has not specifically led you to pick one?

Let me tell you the bad news first. There will always be times when you are presented with multiple options about a situation and God does not specifically lead you to the “right” one. It’s as if God is saying, “what ever you pick and whatever direction you choose, I’ll be with you as long as you glorify me”  Guess what….. HE IS SAYING THAT! 1 Corinthians 10:31 puts it this way.

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Okay, now for the good news. The bible has a story that we can glean truth from and get encouragement from to help us in these times. In Acts 16:4-10, you find the story of some of the apostles obeying the edict of Jesus to go and make disciples. One problem. They did not know exactly in what direction in which to go. What would you do in that situation? Well, we find here in the scriptures that the apostles not knowing in which direction to go, tried them all!  That’s right, they tested every direction until it was apparently clear that they had found the one that was the “right” one. They ended up in Macedonia after they had tried all of the other directions and options. God showed up in a dream to Paul that offered further guidance on direction.

This is a great story in the bible, and I find a few principles I want you to come away with:

1. Make sure that what ever you do, you are glorifying God. (remember the apostles were obeying Christs edict to spread the gospel)
2. As different options become available, don’t get frozen in “analysis paralysis.” Try each direction as they did and God will make it clear to you if He does not want you going that way. (remember they knew the Holy Spirit was stopping them from going in certain directions)
3. If one direction or decision fails, keep trying. (remember after each failed attempt, they kept going forward trying others)
4. Look forward to God making things clearer to you as you move along. (remember God came to guide them more clearly after they had already failed in a few other directions.) The key here is that you must make sure that what you are doing is not dishonoring to God.

Keep pressing forward. Persistence, perseverance and faith are key skills that this process will develop. Stay encouraged you’ll get to Macedonia sooner then you think.