Unka Glen

sarahsayss asked: Hey Unka Glen! I’m currently a nursing major, and I thought that God pushed me towards this path and closed the doors for medicine, but this summer, I’ve been beginning to think that He hasn’t closed those doors, but rather kept them open, and I’m not sure whether to continue with this major or change to a different one. I want to choose the path that God wants for me, but how do I know what that is?

Unka Glen answered: It’s important to recognize that when we pray for wisdom and insight, this is something God always wants to give us. If you come to God and say, I want to know, for sure, what your will is, God will meet you in that. You’ll still have to take a leap of faith in acting on the direction you receive, but at this point, recognize God always wants to give us wisdom and insight.

As for getting that insight, the old Sunday School answer is that there are three ways of knowing God’s will: the first is through reading the Bible, the second is through a spiritual leader who helps us to understand scripture, and the third way is through prayer. And in this case, the Sunday School answer is right on target, the tough part is applying it.

Scripture is the most accurate way to know God’s will, but it’s not very specific to your everyday life. That is to say, you won’t be able to turn to a page of the Bible and see what you should major in. This is where our spiritual leaders come in, our spiritual leaders know our personalities, our struggles, and our gifts. They also know the scriptures, so they can make some good suggestions as to what direction God might be leading us in.

And then you have prayer. Getting a leading from the Lord in prayer is the most specific to your situation, but it’s the least accurate, given that this insight is coming through the soup of your own mind, which is filled with all kinds of emotions and thoughts and whatnot. 

So the key is to use all three, and to make sure they all agree with each other, especially on big decisions like this. The challenge you’re facing, is that this is one of those situations where you really need to hear a specific word on a specific situation, and so you’re going to rely on prayer more than you normally would.

So like all good prayer time, you want to clear your mind as much as possible, by giving up to the Lord as much as possible. Remember, God’s voice is always with us, it just gets lost in the noise and confusion. Tune everything else out, and listen, He’s always there. 

Also remember, the simpler the question, the simpler the answer, and the easier it will be to discern and check. So perhaps a friend who is a little ahead of you in the Lord, or a mentor, can suggest to you a few options you might consider, and then you can take each of those options to the Lord for a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, red light or green light kind of leading.

Either way, receive the faith you need, to act on any direction the Lord gives you, then tell Him you want to be sure about this, that you want to get it right. Keep on asking and seeking, and knocking. “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:8)