A lot of times in our lives we face tough decisions. If you’re a religious person, it’s very tempting to sometimes say “God, I just can’t decide…you decide for me! I don’t want to decide. Give me a sign of what path I should choose.”
I think a lot of us have probably done that. I know I’ve done it. The tricky thing, though, is that God created us with free will. He doesn’t force us to follow Him. He doesn’t force us to work for Him. He wants you to want to follow Him. At the same time, He wants us to make our own decisions. We ask things like “God, where should I go to school?” “What occupational field should I go into?” “Who should I marry?” “Where should I live?” All these things are fine to ask, but what if God preferred that you approach the situation from a different direction?
Instead of directly asking for the solution, consider asking for wisdom to make the best choice. Think back to earlier in your life…maybe in high school, maybe some time at work, where someone was teaching you how to do something that was hard for you to do. “Can you show me again?” “Can you show me one more time?” Depending on how much patience the person had, he/she may have shown you a few times, but each time they demonstrated it for you without you grasping it, the teacher was the one that was actually performing the function. There eventually came a point where you had to do it on your own.
It turns out that God doesn’t mind you asking for His help, but in most cases He’s not going to decide things for you. He wants you to ask for His input; He wants you to consult Him, but in the end, you have free will and the decision falls to you; you have to choose what to do.
I’m including a video from Pastor Craig Groeschel, in which he gives a beautiful analogy about how a parent helps their child learn to overcome obstacles while at the same time giving them the opportunity to learn how to do it for themselves. It’s about three and a half minutes, but Craig says it much better than I ever could. Take a look.