I have been receiving quite a lot of prayer requests and questions about whether we should consider the feelings of others when making life decisions. Over the last few months many people approached me with this question, asking what they should do, especially when parents want their kids (young adults) to do what they think is best for them.
These challenges however also happen with many adults where everyone wants to give advice and sometimes even get quite serious about their opinion. It is so easy for us to tell others what to do with their lives, but is this the right thing to do?
Giving advice is not necessarily wrong, but the way we do it, trying to influence others with our thoughts, can be dangerous. When we need to make life decisions, it’s about us, not about our parents, friends or family members. When we make these decision, we are the ones that must live with it, not them. We all must live our own lives and we cannot make decisions based on making others happy or what they think is right or wrong.
Being a child, a parent will mostly make decisions on our behalf, which is completely right, but when we grow up and become adults, we need to learn to stand on our own and make decisions for ourselves. It is never easy for parents to accept this, since parents have been making decisions for their kids for the biggest part of their childhood. It is however important to know when to let go and let your children become adults themselves, but also that the kids, when becoming young adult, to make their own decisions, even if their parents don’t like it.
Why am I saying this? Being a child of the most High, in adult form, we have to make decisions based on what God tells us, which forms part of God’s plan for our lives. When we want to do something, get opportunities or are being offered something, we ourselves need to pray about this and ask God if it is within His will. If it is and we do it, then it falls within the life God set out for us and we will be able to receive the blessings placed on our lives. When we don’t do this, doing things against God plan, then we are on our own and we block blessings that has been placed on our paths and we are destined to fail.
What I am trying to say is, as young adults, adults or senior adults, we need to do what God wants us to do and then what we want, not what others say or think. It’s our lives, it’s our plans that God gave us, and nobody else can live this for us. We will one day have to answer to God why we did not follow His plan and we then cannot turn around saying that we did what we did because mom, dad, my friend or my brother said is best for me. Nobody else can live our lives for us and they will not one day have to answer to our lives, we have to.
Sometimes when we make decisions, others might not like it, or they may think we are making a mistake, but ultimately, it is not up to them. You must do what you must do, if it falls within the plan God has for your life. There is nothing wrong with asking advice, but we need to, at the end, do what is best for us, not for them. It is also important not to be rude to others who might tell you what to do, simply because they might only do this because they care and love you. Approach this with care and love but do what is right in the eyes of God and not of man.
When I left the business world to work fulltime for Jesus, many told me it was wrong and that I was making a big mistake. Very few people supported me in this! The Lord appeared to me in a vision and told me to leave the business world, let go of everything I got through the world, follow Him and start Jesus to my Rescue Ministries. It wasn’t easy, but I did not listen to those who told me I was making a mistake, I did what God wanted for my life. Today, 10 years later, Jesus to my Rescue is an international ministry that reaches more than 250 000 people each year, where many accepts Jesus into their lives and many lives are touched and changed for the good of the Kingdom of God.
If you are at the door of a great opportunity, have to make a huge business decision, want to go into ministry, go study or simply just take time off, do it, as long as it falls within God’s plan for your life, and do not listen to those who don’t understand your life and God’s plan for it. I want to close off with these Bible verses:
Proverbs 29:25: It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the Lord, you are safe. Psalm 118:8: It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man. Galatians 1:10: Am I saying this now to win the approval of people or God? Am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ’s servant. Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The greatest prison that people live in is the fear of what other people think. – David Icke
God bless,
Jaco van As