Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Are you at a crossroads in your life? Are you wrestling with a career decision, wanting God’s will in a relationship, seeking to more clearly discern God’s calling in your life? You’re not alone! The Hebrew prophet Joel had it right, “Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14).
Often seeking God’s will, I am helped by something I read in a biography of God’s great servant and author of My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers. The biography is, Abandoned to God, by David McCasland in which he recounted the many times that Chambers lacked clarity about the future and what God wanted him to do. But McCasland tells of how in times like this Chambers was guided by the thought, “to trust God and do the next thing.”
Trusting God and doing the next thing at life’s crossroads comes through clearly in a book by the spiritual mentor to C. S. Lewis, George McDonald. In his novel Seaside Parish, McDonald passes on a minister’s advice to his teenage daughter, struggling with a big decision:
What God may hereafter require of you, you must not give yourself the least trouble about. Everything He gives you to do, you must do as well as ever you can. That is the best possible preparation for what He may want you to do next. If people would but do what they have to do, they would always find themselves ready for what comes next.
The wisdom of trusting God and doing the next thing is also found in the book, Ye Next Thynge, by Eleanor Sutphen. Based on an old Saxon legend, here are a few pertinent lines from Sutphen’s book:
Many a questioning, many a fear,
Many a doubt, hath its quieting here.
Moment by moment, let down from Heaven,
Time, opportunity, and guidance are given.
Fear not tomorrows, child of the King,
Trust them with Jesus, do the next thing
Do it immediately, do it with prayer;
Do it reliantly, casting all care;
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand
Who placed it before thee with earnest command.
Stayed on Omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing,
Leave all results, do the next thing.
God’s will for us in always found in the sacrament of the present moment calling us simply to do the next thing. If your way ahead seems unclear, and you’re left wondering what to do: trust in God and do the next thing. Leave results to our heavenly Father, trusting Him to guide your steps as you do the next thing in front of you, today.
A fellow traveler,
Tim
