Article September 14, 1987 Issue

The next step

Progress comes through right decisions. But how do you make them?

Jeannie J. Ferber

What's next? Do you wish you knew? Decisions should represent opportunities. But often they feel like weighty concerns. We may find ourselves wondering, not where will we find a job, but will we find a job? Will we find a decent place to live at a rent we can afford?

At least in part, doubt and worry over decisions come from the assumption that we can't control the next step in our lives because other factors, such as economic, political, and social conditions, are beyond our control. Things like job, cost-of-living, and "singles" statistics can seem to stand as threats to our hopes and expectations. Sometimes we're convinced not even to try to take the next step. However, all this reasoning has a fundamental flaw. It virtually leaves God—the supreme, wholly good, governing power—out of the picture! But once we begin to learn about God, we come to see His direction, His guidance, as the determining factor of our progress.

The Bible describes the basis for progress as sole dependence on God, not on material factors: "Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. ... And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water."^{Ex. 23:20, 25.}

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