When You're Wondering If You Made the Right Choice

Grace had a steady job, the kind you don't walk

away from without a reason, but she believed God was calling her

to something else. So after two years, she quit and she enrolled

in a master's program to become a teacher. She was sure she had

heard God right. This was the bold step of faith, the door he

was opening. Then the program started, and it was tougher than

anything she'd expected. She felt behind everyone else. She

questioned whether she belonged there at all, and the doubt

crept in, and it went deeper than the coursework. She started

questioning the whole decision. Had she made a mistake? Had she

walked away from a good job for nothing? We'll come back to what

Grace learned, but first,

welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger.

Years ago, I made a big move in ministry, one I believed God was

leading me into. I stepped out, sure of it, and then the

difficulty came, the kind that makes you wonder if you read God

wrong. I lay awake, replaying the choice, asking whether I'd

missed him and whether I should have stayed put. What I slowly

learned is that God didn't abandon me to my decision. He

kept leading me forward from where I stood, and he used the

thing I questioned to shape me. I couldn't see that in the

middle of it, but I can see it now. Maybe you're living with a

decision like that. You took the job. You said yes to the person.

You made the move, and you signed the papers, and now

you're a few months or a few years in, and you catch yourself

wondering if you got it right. Second-guessing is common, and

it isn't always a red flag. Sometimes it's grief, a mourning

for the roads you didn't take, and the life that might have

been down the one you passed up. There's a promise in the Psalms

for the person on the far side of a decision. Listen to Psalm

32.8. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should

go. I will guide you with my eye. Watch the tense of that verse. I

will instruct you. I will guide you. Every verb points forward.

about more than the decision behind you. He's committed to

the steps ahead of you. Whatever you already chose, he is still

saying, from here, I will guide you. And I believe that matters

because a lot of us live with a fear that one wrong turn puts us

outside God's guidance, like we stepped off the only path he had

ever had for us, and now we're on our own. Now, that's not how

he works. He doesn't require you to have made the flawless choice

before he'll lead you well. He meets you on the road you're on

now, and he walks you forward from there. Grace had to learn

something in all of this, and maybe you do, too. She had

believed, without quite saying it, that if she was following

God, nothing would go wrong. So when it got difficult, she

assumed she'd made a mistake. But hardship is not proof that

you chose wrong. Following God comes with one promise about the

road, that he will be with you on it all the way. The road

itself may get steep. You can be in the middle of trouble and

still be right in the center of God's leading. And that's what

freed grace. Grace was ready to call the whole thing a failure.

Then, an older family friend she trusted gave her some of the

best advice she'd ever heard. He told her, just go and try. Write

what she could, and if she couldn't, then come home. That

was it. Permission to try without having to be perfect.

Permission to not have it all figured out. Something in grace

gave way. She had been afraid because part of her believed

that following God meant nothing would go wrong. She came to

understand God's promise instead, to stay with her and keep

leading her one step at a time, even when the road got steep.

Grace kept going, and God kept guiding her toward what came

next. Just go and try. That one piece of advice broke the fear

that had her frozen. She had thought following God ruled out

things going wrong. What she found instead was a God who

stayed with her and kept leading one steep step at a time. She

didn't need a guarantee that she'd chosen perfectly. She

needed to know he was with her, and he was. Here's today's

challenge. If you're second-guessing a decision you

can't take back, stop trying to relitigate it today. You may

never know. For certain, it was the perfect choice, and you

don't have to. Instead, do two things. Number one, bring God

the decision you already made and ask him to lead you well

from right there. Then, ask him for wisdom for the next step. He

promised to guide you going forward. Take him at his word

and move. Father, some of us are second-guessing a choice we

can't take back, afraid we stepped off the path you had for

us. Thank you that your promise to guide us is future tense,

that you lead us forward from wherever we stand. Free us from

needing to have chosen perfectly. Meet us on the road we're on and

give us wisdom for the next step. Thank you that you stay with us

even when the road turns steep. In Jesus' name, amen. This

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And thanks for joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives.

so you don't have to have chosen perfectly for Him to lead you

well from right where you are. Come back next time for more

encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth. Until

then, God bless and have a great day.