My son texted us at 4 a.m.

He was sick with a severe sore throat. OK, I thought. We can handle this minor long-distance emergency. Find a doctor in the area, send him the insurance information, make sure he has plenty of ibuprofen and fluids on hand.

Check.

Except for one little problem. He and his ministry team would be leaving at 6 a.m. in a van to travel 600 miles for their next mission trip, to an unfamiliar city where we don’t know where anything is.

Should he go? Should he stay home? Is it just a sore throat? Or something worse? Questions and potential plans swirled through my mind, and honestly, I didn’t have the right answer. We had to take a deep breath, pray, and make the best decision we could.

More importantly, I had to decide to give the situation to God and remind myself that He is indeed God.

Do I trust God to take care of my kids?

“Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.” Deuteronomy 7:9 NLT

I love the above verse from Deuteronomy when I struggle to trust God with my kids. It holds two powerful promises we need. The first tells us that God is who the Bible says He is.

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The Lord your God is indeed God.

When we have a hard time trusting God and giving Him control of our circumstances - especially where our kids are concerned - we need this firm reminder. I can (sometimes) get carried away in my own thoughts, worrying and wondering what to do. I love it when God steps in and simply says, “I’ve got this.”

God keeps His promises for a thousand generations.

The second promise reinforces how much God loves and cares for our children, grandchildren, and generations to come. It provides hope and encouragement when uncertainty about their futures turns to fear. Oh, how God loves them! So much that he lavishes his love on us and assures us of His faithful care for our kids.

I needed this verse today. And if you did too, let’s stand together on the promises of Deuteronomy 7:9. Turning your child over to God may not be easy. Trusting God when it comes to my kids may be a daily renewal of my thought patterns. But He is faithful and His Word is the same yesterday, today, and every day of our children’s futures.

Had we made a huge mistake? We’d prayed about this job opportunity. We’d sought wise counsel from a trusted friend. Then we prayed some more. It looked like this open door for a different job was an answer to prayer.

But after loading up the family and hauling everything we owned 700 miles to our new home, we never expected to face this.

The start-up company that offered my husband the job closed its doors. This turn of events hit hard, leaving us with the uncertainty of unemployment while providing for a new baby. It caused me to question: how could we have been so sure this was God’s will? If He really brought us here, why would this happen?

How Do I Know When I’m in God’s Will?

Trusting that our actions are in line with God’s will for us can be hard. Especially when doubt and fear try to work their way into our lives.

I can’t count the number of prayers offered up to God before we made the big decision to relocate to another state. Daily I sat before my Heavenly Father asking, seeking, and knocking on the door while waiting for some type of signal to point the way. Yet in between prayers I would contemplate, evaluate, and negotiate with God about the whole thing. I claimed to trust the Holy Spirit, but my actions told a different story.

When you ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, trust He will.

Sometimes we will not hear God’s audible voice offering the direction we seek. In the quiet waiting, it’s easy to let our minds wander into a whirlwind of questions and concerns. When this happens, we need to remember the moment we invited Jesus Christ into our lives. Because of His deep love for us, He sent the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter and Guide. John 16:13 says, “The Spirit will guide you into all truth.” So even if I don’t have a definite answer, I can trust that the Spirit in me provides what I need to make any decision with clarity and a steadfast heart.

Seeking God’s Will Doesn’t Need to Be Complicated

The more we tried to figure out the best choice for our family, the more confused we became. Through all the madness, we failed to see how the confusion affected our everyday lives. We had forgotten the truth of 1 Corinthians 14:33, “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace.”

God’s Word offers simple steps to follow for those who seek His will. “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus,” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

Instead of making it complicated, let’s focus on the simplicity of God’s will.

Rejoice. Pray. Give thanks. These three actions will cast aside all the distraction of our runaway thoughts. When we bring our focus back to the simplicity of God’s will for us, we suddenly lose the urgency of having to decide right now. Our focus becomes how we live our lives for God, not how He answers our prayers.

If you’re in a place of confusion today over which path to take, allow the verses above to bring fresh peace to your situation. Trust in the Holy Spirit to open the right doors and close the wrong ones as you focus on the simplicity of God’s will.

He is faithful to guide as we keep our eyes on Him.