When You Are Confused About What to Do in Life

Deuteronomy 29:29

What should you do when you are confused about what to do in life? How can you know the will of God for your life in specific situations? And what steps should you take when you need to make a decision but you are not sure what God wants you to do?

God has told us in the Bible that our ultimate purpose is to glorify him, so that’s what he is always calling us to do. However, when it comes to the specifics in our lives, knowing what to do in life can be much harder.

Here are 4 steps you can take when you are confused about what to do in life.

Pray, Plan, Pray Again, Patiently Progress Forward, and Repeat

When you are confused about what to do in life, sometimes we can get so overwhelmed that we just get stuck doing nothing but sitting in confusion. It helps to have a structured way of dealing with confusion and seeking God’s will for your life.

Whenever you have a question about what God wants you to do, I believe it is wise to pray, plan, pray again, and then patiently progress forward. As new questions arise, you simply repeat this process. As you continue to do this, you will consistently be able to move forward in life without getting stuck in confusion.

When you have a problem, always start with prayer. During this time you are asking God to reveal to you what he wants you to do. I have other resources on how to hear God’s voice, so I won’t go into the specifics here. After you pray and sense what God might be leading you to do, you should then come up with a tentative plan on how you will accomplish this. After you pray over this plan again, you should then start moving forward as you execute the plan.

If you wait to move forward until God shows you everything in your future, you will never move forward. When you move forward in faith, God will then reveal more information to you about your present and future. The key is to then repeat this process with the new information you get.

Don’t think you will pray once, plan once, and then everything will be perfect. When you want to know what God wants you to do in life, you need to realize this is an ongoing process. He won’t reveal your whole future all at once, but God will reveal the next step he wants you to take. And then he will keep doing this. Before you know it you will be moving forward into his will for your life.

Study the Word and Learn from Others to Create the Best Plan

In the above process, the planning section will probably be the area with the most questions. If you are unsure of what the word of God says about something, don’t just wing it. Go to the word of God and study the area in your life that you need to know more about.

In addition to the word of God, when you are confused about what to do in life, you should seek the guidance of other people. By talking with others you often get the clarity you were looking for by learning from others.

Additionally, sometimes it’s not even what the other person will say, but when you take the time to verbalize a situation, you often realize you do know what to do already. Sharing will help you become more aware of what you really want to do.

Don’t Let Your Confusion Stop You From Obeying God’s Clear Commands

Another important step when you are confused about what to do in life is to always come back to what you do know. All humans are limited beings, so there will always be things we do not know. If we get too overwhelmed by all the unknowns these can cloud out the truths that God has given to us.

It’s good to seek answers for the things we are confused about in life, but we must never forget all of the clarity God has already given to us through his word. Deuteronomy 29:29 says it like this, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

At times in life, we may never find answers to certain questions we are asking. But let us never forget what we do know. We know that God is real, we know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, we know we are called to glorify God, we know we are called to obey God’s commands, and we know God is always with us.

When you are confused about life, look for answers, but always come back to what God has shown you already.

When You Are Confused About Life, Find Your Peace By Putting Your Hope in Jesus Christ

As we just discussed, sometimes no matter what we try, we will still be confused about what we are to do in life. Peace will not come through knowing the future. Peace will only come when we truly know God. There will always be unknowns in life, but when we know God he can give us the peace we seek.

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” (Psalm 131:1-3)

What is a weaned child like? A child who is not weaned from his mother will cry and scream when the mother is not close to breast feed. However, when a child is weaned it is at peace even though the mother is nor treating him like a baby. A weaned child knows that even though the mother is not going to hold him all the time, the mother is still always there.

Likewise, as we enter Christian maturity, we must be able to have peace even when we don’t know everything. Our faith in God is weak if we have to know everything about the future in order to trust God.

So when you don’t know what to do in your life, you must always put your hope for peace in Jesus Christ. If you are looking for peace through knowledge about what will happen in your life, the peace will never come. But when you have Christ, you can be at peace even when there are things too great in your life to fully understand at this point.