When we feel we’ve been guided by God, whether through His Word, His Spirit or another person, we’ve got a choice to make. Are we going to step out and follow His leading or stay where we are? It’s one thing to ask for His guidance, it’s another thing to be willing to follow what He is saying. Sometimes it seems like the better option is to stay where we are. We can feel afraid of stepping into something new or unknown and we can doubt whether we heard God correctly, but God promises to be with us and to lead us on. He says: “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them” (v.16 NIV). When we find ourselves in the situation of having to decide about whether we’re going to follow God’s leading or not, there are two things we can ask ourselves. Firstly, what makes the risk so difficult for us? Risk and change can be uncomfortable, challenging and even threatening. But the Bible says: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding’ (Proverbs 3:5 NIV). God knows that we’ll be tempted to lean on what we understand, but He asks us to lean on Him. He knows things far beyond what we could understand. Secondly, are we willing to make a change? If we’re going to follow God’s will, we need to be prepared for things to change. But He works everything for good, so if it’s His will, it’s worth the risk and the change.
