www.marketplacenetwork.com

So Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are 

brothers. "Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to 

the right, then I will go to the left.-Abram to Lot in Genesis 13:8-9 

 "How do I know what God wants me to do?"  

Especially around career choices, Christians often feel like they're on their own when it comes to knowing where God wants to 

use them. Many get stuck in the fork of the road because they're waiting for some magic sign that assures them they're headed the 

right way. Especially in our Western culture, this rarely comes.** Others never bother to consider God and spend their 

lives doing what they want, with little impact in God's economy and less respect from Him. 

So how do we sort through key decision-making moments in our 

working lives? Consider this template: 

- Ask yourself if your choices violate any of the principles of 

Scripture. If the answer is yes, then you have your answer 

already. This may sound simple, but among the most common 

counseling complaints I hear as a chaplain is "...I know the Bible 

says no, but it feels like the right thing to do!" God's Word is 

as practical and applicable in today's workplace as it was in 

the workplaces of the day it was written, and anything that 

violates those principles gets a hearty "no" from God. 

- Has God already made it clear what He wants you to do and 

you're simply ignoring Him or running away from Him? God is not 

the author of confusion (that's how the Bible refers to Satan), 

and He doesn't play head games with us. If He intends to use us 

in a specific way, He will make that way known to us if we're 

honestly seeking Him. If you study the lives of Moses, Jonah, 

Jacob, Joseph and others, you'll see that when God decides to 

use us in a specific manner, He will make it clear. If He has, 

then all the wrestling and rationalizing in the world won't 

change His course. We can either go willingly (Joseph) or go the 

hard way (Jonah). 

- Since God is most interested in being in relationship with us 

(remember "The Reason We Exist"), His heart is pleased when we 

seek to be faithful to Him. So, if we've passed the first and 

second tests in our decision-making process and are still free 

to choose, next we need to ask: "Is my heart's desire to be a 

faithful and useful servant?" If the answer is yes to that 

question, then if you go right, God will bless you in that 

direction, or if you go left, God will also bless you in that 

direction. Remember its fellowship and faithful hearts He 

desires even more than service. (For an example of this in 

Scripture, see Genesis 13:5-9, where Abram lets Lot pick which 

direction to go, even though Abram had God's promise of a 

blessing.) (Remember, though, that blessings are not always 

measured in material wealth or success. Those who teach such 

things abuse Scripture!) 

- What if God is silent? God's silence almost always means one 

thing: We already have all the information we need to make a 

decision. Either it's available to us in His Word and we've 

chosen to ignore it (as the Jewish leaders of New Testament 

times did when Jesus came as the Messiah), or we haven't 

equipped ourselves to be able to test what we hear because of 

our Biblical illiteracy (as the Israelites did again and again 

during the time of the Judges), or we're looking for a sign 

(which Jesus downplays as evidence of weak faith.) 

- God also uses common sense and circumstance to present us with 

His answers, but we have to be careful here because we often let 

what's best for us govern our decision instead of what's best 

for our faithfulness to God. 

- What if we don't know our Bibles well enough to test what we 

think we're hearing from God? The beauty of God is His ability 

to see our failures ahead of time and to plan for them. In this 

case, Scripture tells us to seek the counsel of godly older men 

and women. Most working Christians I know do a good job of 

asking for advice from older, wiser workers. The mistake they 

often make, though, is in asking older, wiser workers with 

little knowledge of Scripture. It is not nearly enough that our 

counselors are wise in the ways of commerce, they must also be 

wise in the ways of Scripture. Otherwise, the advice they offer 

is based on what seems best to them, and not on whether it's 

consistent with Scripture or in line with how God wants to use 

us. 

- This then opens another door for workplace counsel. If one of 

the most important aspects of decision-making is testing the 

options against the Word of God, then the counsel of pastors 

takes on new value. 

--Randy Kilgore

**(I say "western culture" because there are still many places 

in the East where it is difficult to have easy access to God's 

written word. Because God will be known to His people, in those 

places it is logical and reasonable to assume He will act 

supernaturally with greater frequency than He does in the place 

where He's made His Word readily available to us. Western 

Christians have ready access to Scripture, and thus to the 

primary way God reveals Himself and His will. That we choose not 

to study it is one of the primary reasons we don't know Him or 

His will.)