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Glory · Suffering & God's Will
God is not thrown off course by your wrong turns. He guides His people, He works all things for good for those who love Him, and even our mistaken choices fall within His sovereign care. Ask for wisdom, own the mistake before Him, and keep trusting the One who will complete the good work He began.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/what-if-i-make-the-wrong-decision · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Proverbs 3:1-12
As you read: The promise that God makes straight the paths of those who acknowledge Him in all their ways.
1My son, don’t forget my teaching; but let your heart keep my commandments:
2for length of days, and years of life, and peace, will they add to you.
3Don’t let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4So you will find favor, and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
5Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.
6In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
7Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh, and depart from evil.
8It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.
9Honor Yahweh with your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase:
10so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
11My son, don’t despise Yahweh’s discipline, neither be weary of his reproof:
12for whom Yahweh loves, he reproves; even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.
Psalm 37:1-9
As you read: The Lord establishes a good man's steps, and holds him up even when he stumbles.
1Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness.
2For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb.
3Trust in Yahweh, and do good. Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture.
4Also delight yourself in Yahweh, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in him, and he will do this:
6he will make your righteousness go out as the light, and your justice as the noon day sun.
7Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.
8Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Don’t fret, it leads only to evildoing.
9For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for Yahweh shall inherit the land.
Jeremiah 29:4-14
As you read: God's word to exiles in a wrong turn of their own history: He has thoughts of peace and a future for them.
4Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, to all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5Build houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat their fruit.
6Take wives, and father sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there, and don’t be diminished.
7Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to Yahweh for it; for in its peace you shall have peace.
8For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Don’t let your prophets who are in your midst, and your diviners, deceive you; neither listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.
9For they prophesy falsely to you in my name: I have not sent them, says Yahweh.
10For thus says Yahweh, After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says Yahweh, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
12You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.
14I will be found by you, says Yahweh, and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says Yahweh; and I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.
James 1:1-8
As you read: The open invitation to ask God for wisdom, who gives generously and without reproach.
1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations,
3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
6But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
7For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord.
8He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Philippians 3:7-14
As you read: Paul's posture after his own life of wrong turns: forget what is behind, and press on toward the goal.
7However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
8Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ
9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
10that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;
11if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
13Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
James promises that if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives liberally and without reproach. Proverbs ties trusting God to straight paths: trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will make your paths straight. A man plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps.
“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.”James 1:5
“Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”Proverbs 3:5-6
“A man’s heart plans his course, but Yahweh directs his steps.”Proverbs 16:9
You do not carry the weight of the future alone. For those who love God, all things work together for good. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. Even God's word to exiled Israel in a season of their own failure was a plan for good: 'thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.' Your wrong turn is not the end of His purposes.
“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.”Romans 8:28
“being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”Philippians 1:6
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says Yahweh, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.”Jeremiah 29:11
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.”Genesis 50:20
God has already told us most of what we need to decide well. Micah sums it up: 'to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.' Jesus adds: seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. The difficult decisions are usually made in the same way as the easy ones: by wisdom, Scripture, prayer, and godly counsel, trusting that a heart set on Him is being guided by Him.
“He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”Micah 6:8
“But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.”Matthew 6:33
“Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”Proverbs 3:5-6
“Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.”Romans 12:2
The psalm promises that though a good man stumbles, he shall not fall, because the Lord holds him up with His hand. God's track record is written in redemptive detours: Joseph's brothers meant evil, but God meant it for good. Your choice is not beyond His reach; He has a long history of bending fallen choices toward His purposes, not because the wrong was right, but because His grace is larger.
“A man’s goings are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way. Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with his hand.”Psalm 37:23-24
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.”Genesis 50:20
“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.”Romans 8:28
When you realize you chose wrongly, do not spiral or freeze: own it before God, for He is faithful to forgive and cleanse when we confess. Ask for the wisdom you lacked, and then press on. Paul, who had made ruinously wrong choices in his past, said it best: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal. One step of faithfulness after a fall is still faithfulness.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”1 John 1:9
“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.”James 1:5
“Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”Philippians 3:13-14
“It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”Lamentations 3:22-23