Uncertainty over hard decisions

This weekend a friend shared a helpful article on Facebook about searching for God's will and why it isn't always clear what we should do. It resonates with me as we made a couple of hard decisions last week. Decisions that I don't want to talk about here, but required us to choose between two good and important things and also required us to not be concerned about what other people thought (please don't worry, these decisions don't have long-term implications regarding our current ministries in Japan).

Jon Bloom writes in the article:

But conformity to the world or to Jesus is most clearly seen in the pattern of decisions we make over time. That’s one reason why God makes us wrestle with uncertainty. He wants us to mature and have our “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14). (from here)

 He also writes:

Shouldn’t we expect God to direct us more explicitly in these [big, life-shaping decisions]? 

The answer is no, not necessarily. Why? Well, the short answer is because he is God, and we are not. “It is the glory of God to conceal things” (Proverbs 25:2). His wisdom and knowledge are unfathomably deep, his judgments are unsearchable, and his ways are inscrutable (Romans 11:33). Considering all the factors in play in the universe, it is likely no exaggeration that there are trillions of reasons for why God directs the course of our lives, and he prefers to carry out his purposes in ways that confound, surprise, and humble humans, angels, and demons.

Good points. We're simply not equipped to deal with making decisions with all the knowledge that there is to have, so we have to do what we can with what we've got. And in the process we will, if we allow God's spirit to work in us, be gradually transformed into people who are more like Jesus. (Romans 8:29 and 12:2)

It is helpful to remember, though, as we go out into another week and daily wrestle with uncertainty, that God wants us to wrestle with these decisions, but also that he is right by our sides throughout it all.

Here's one more Scripture to ponder:

I was senseless and ignorant;
    I was a brute beast before you.

 Yet I am always with you;
    you hold me by my right hand.
 You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will take me into glory.
 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
 My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart
    and my portion forever. (Ps 73:22-26, NIV)