When Life is Confusing
Keep trusting and keep going!
Christians sometimes speak about seasons in their spiritual life. There can be periods of time when we find ourselves devoted to Bible reading and prayer, other times when we are engaged in outreach and evangelistic ministries, other times when we are depressed and battling to make sense of things, and yet other times when we are waiting for God’s promises to manifest with expectation and longing.
When we go through a season of confusion this can be challenging, but this is part of the spiritual journey, for me at least. In my quiet time with God recently I have been asking for clarity and direction because I feel unclear about His will for my life moving forward. I’m in a bind with my accommodation, I don’t have a job, I have troubled relationships, and I’m struggling to understand the will of God for my life moving forward.
During a season of confusion there are really only two things we can do: Keep trusting and keep going. When everything seems like a mess, sometimes we just have to hold on to a belief in the goodness of God. It can also be helpful to remember that when things seem confusing to us, they are clear to God. He has helped us to climb mountains in the past and there’s no reason to believe He won’t do so again.
My notebook is full of written conversations I have had with God. I often engage in question and answer sessions with Him, and He gives me guidance and direction and explains things that are going to happen or that He would like me to do. What I really struggle with is when God gives me a clear indication that something is going to happen, but then it doesn’t. Satan is described in the Bible as the father of lies, so when God makes me a promise that seemingly doesn’t manifest, my thoughts sometimes wonder whether I am perhaps possessed with an evil spirit or being controlled by Satan.
I hate thinking like this! I have tried to be wholly devoted to God and always cry out to Him alone, asking that I hear His voice and not Satan’s. But the problem I have to wrestle with is why God would lie to me and keep me feeling confused.
It’s important to acknowledge the absolute sovereignty of God and that He does whatever He will. Not everything He does has to make sense from a human perspective. But as human beings we yearn to feel at peace and seasons of confusion can be unsettling.
I won’t speculate as to why I’m going through such a confusing time, but I will press on with a hopeful expectation that the prayers I have offered up to God for clarity and peace of mind will be answered in His timing and His way. In a season of confusion, this seems like the wisest thing to do. God sometimes reassures me that the good promises He has made to me are true, so I must cling onto that reassurance with hopeful expectation, in the knowledge that the will of God cannot be thwarted.
Sometimes ‘Thy will be done’ is the perfect prayer.