“Think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.”
The Next Step . . .
I sat on the edge of the grayish-blue couch, picking at my fingernails while my right foot tapped feverishly against the floor. Within a few months I would graduate from high school, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
My youth pastor’s wife hosted a small group of teen girls in her home every week, and I always enjoyed participating. But when the discussion turned to our futures, I turned silent. Graduation represented a fork in the road.
Which path would I take?
The choices before me felt overwhelming. I pretty much froze whenever the topic arose. But then my youth pastor’s wife offered a morsel of wisdom I’ll never forget.
She said, “In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says we should pray for our daily bread. He didn’t say that we should pray for enough bread to last for the rest of our lives. Because God wants us to depend on Him for our provision. In the same way, when we’re facing a big, unknown future, we can pray that God will show us the next step to take. We don’t need to know what every day for the rest of our lives will look like. We only need to ask Him to show us the next step.”
What a relief! I’d been so worked up over trying to figure out the rest of my life, when all I needed to do was ask God to show me the next step.
Lord, show me the next step I should take. Guide me on the right path.
More than two decades have passed since the first time I prayed that prayer. I can look back now and see how God has been faithful to answer that prayer too. Not that everything’s been rosy and perfect. I’ve made my share of wrong turns along the way. But those wrong turns were my wrong choices — times when I chose to lean on my own understanding, rather than His.
Yet, when I purpose my heart to lean on Him, God proves Himself trustworthy time and again.
Are you facing an important decision today?
Are you unsure of which path to take?
Are you wondering what the next step is for you?
Here at (in)courage, we would love to pray for you!
How can we pray for you today?
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