When Trusting Your Next Step Doesn’t Come Easily

We sold our house six months ago, and in that timeframe have only found one that suited us enough to put an offer on. Every few months, my husband and I pause and ask one another, “did we make the right decision? Should we have waited to sell?” And every time, we circle back to the same answer: the timing was right. Some months it takes more wrestling than others to get there, but the outcome never waivers.

We know that while the in-between is a bit uncomfortable and we are not where we’d like to be, we are confident it’s where we are meant to be.

But this isn’t always a place I am quick to get to. When life unravels, trusting that my next step is the right step rarely comes easily.

Trusting Your Next Step

Throughout the years, I’ve had to make some hard medical decisions—very few of which have left me feeling confident about the path ahead.

+ Am I making the right decision?

+ Is this what is best for my future?

+ What if things don’t turn out as planned?

Easy answers to these questions aren’t common, but time has taught me that while I might not always make the right decision, I can trust God will always walk with me through the next step.

When I reframe my next step within this context, it helps free me from the weight of making a “wrong decision” and instead trust the next step.

We all know that trust in the unknown is difficult. This perspective doesn’t eliminate the weight of difficult decisions—whether medical or otherwise. But when we remember to place our trust in God instead of in ourselves, we make our way back toward this truth:

+ You don’t have to respond perfectly because God is in it no matter what

+ God is working things out over a lifetime

Placing trust in myself instead of in God shields me from remembering that God is not interested in my performance, but in my being. And blaming myself for a “wrong decision” is certainly not what God wants for me.

You don’t have to respond perfectly.

When we free ourselves from responding “perfectly,” we become free to trust that there are no “wrong” decisions.

God is working things out over a lifetime.

When we remember God is working things out over a lifetime, we can trust we can’t mess up God’s plans. 

Practically Speaking: Trusting Your Next Step

Because trusting your next step is hard, here are some practical ways I find help me continue to put my trust in God even when I struggle to trust my next step.

Without fail what moves me toward trusting God more than myself is paying attention to the details.

As the pleas to God to make my tumor disappear have gone unanswered over the years, discouragement has and will likely again take hold, but what sustains me to keep trusting God are the details within the journey.

Uncovering how the smallest of concerns on my heart have been met through answers to prayers I often failed to realize I was praying, end up helping me navigate yet another day.

God’s provision doesn’t always show up in the form we expect, but it’s always there waiting for us to seek and find.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7 ESV

If you are struggling to uncover God’s provision and trust Him as you navigate your next step, I recommend these two practices:

+ Journal your thoughts. When we allow our thoughts to pour out on the page, we often find little connections that can be easy to overlook otherwise.

+ Talk to a counselor, family member, or friend. Someone you trust and who can hold your story may help you uncover God at work in your life. Consider inviting a friend to go on a walk to process through some of the thoughts and feelings you are noticing.

Conclusion

Trusting God through life’s storms isn’t a one-and-done task we can cross off the list. Trust is built over a lifetime and it often feels broken through the storms of life as we wonder where God is and what He is doing. 

When you are struggling to trust your next step, remember that no matter which path you pursue, God will walk beside you. Every decision we make simply guides us along a different path, one that God will sustain us through. 

Connecting with God is hard when we are in constant motion. If you need support as you grow still in God’s presence, I’d love to gift you with a copy of Ungrounded. May it be your companion as you pause in God’s presence. Enter your email below and a PDF of the ebook will be on its way to your inbox.

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